The Last Kryptonian
by Cybergades
Summary: Smallville Stargate SG1 Fic. For years Clark Kent has wondered and feared about the day when his secret would be exposed. What happens when the agent of a government agency discovers he's an alien. What Happens when that agent is from the SGC. ClarkLana
1. The Ancients and the Kryptonians

**Author Notes:**

**IMPORTANT NOTE – THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED. I suggest you read it again if you have the chance as it has several areas which affect the next chapter.**

It seems that I can't stop the plot bunnies. They do tend to be annoying when you're trying to work on something else. Even so when they come I find myself unable to move forward unless I give it some attention to purge my mind of the thoughts for that particular story. I have recently been reading quite a few Smallville and Stargate SG1 fictions and I found myself thinking about how great a cross over the two would make. I mean really think about it. SG1 deals with alien encounters all the time, they have some of the most powerful enemies imaginable and it would be so easy to bring the two worlds together in a way that creates an amazing story.

With that thought in mind I checked out what was available on for such a crossover and found that there really was very little available. Maybe a dozen or so fictions and almost all of them were a few thousand words long and just plain junk. At any rate I have decided to try my hand at such a story as I have some great ideas floating around my head right now.

One thing I want to make clear to my readers. At this point I am putting all my other stories **except** for this one and Second Chances on HIATUS. I have enough free time right now that I can write about 1 chapter a week possibly two. This means with me rotating back and forth between these 2 stories I will be able to write a chapter each every week or two.

Couple of things to keep in mind here. First off this is AU obviously and not just because it has the two shows woven together but also because of character personalities and decisions. On the whole I will make the characters stick to their normal personas but I will be make tweaks here and there with some of the key players (i.e. I think I am going to avoid making Lex evil. It will not happen overnight but I always thought that Lex had potential to be truly good and a great asset to Clark if he had the right support).

This story is roughly starts around Smallville Season 5 and Stargate SG1 Season 7. It will take elements from Canon from BOTH stories but for obvious reasons it will diverge in various areas and as the story goes farther along there will be a lot of changes.

Not sure what the Relationships are going to be yet but I can tell you for sure this story will have Clark & Lana together eventually as well as Pete & Chloe. I may or may not do pairings on the Stargate side of things but if I do expect it to be later in the story. Well with all that said I think it's time to get started.

* * *

**Stargate SG1 – The Last Kryptonian**

Chapter One: The Ancients and the Kryptonians

By Cybergades

* * *

Colonel O'Neill sat in the briefing room with the rest of SG1 and General Hammond awaiting Daniel's long and likely boring report in which he would drawl on continuously about their upcoming mission to P48-WX9. They had found the gate address weeks earlier by complete and total dumb luck when Sam had fallen through the ground into a hidden cave. The cave itself had seemed to be of no interest at first glance but Sam had decided to check it out while the rest of them worked on figuring a way to get her out of there. She had come across the gate address carved into a wall in the back of the cave and copied it down for no other reason then to add it to their ever growing list of addresses to explore.

At the time it had not seemed important and she along with the rest of the team had been ready to leave. At least they had been ready to leave until Daniel had come down into the cave after hearing about the various drawings on the wall. At that point he had promptly begged Jack to let him take some pictures of the writings so that he could study them back at the base. This of course had taken several hours since Daniel insisted on taking dozens of photos and even went so far as to record the whole scene on his camcorder.

Eventually they had gotten out of there and returned to the gate to wrap up their incredibly boring survey mission. So they had returned to the SGC and entered the address into the computer and forgot about it. The computer would schedule a survey of the planet eventually as it did with all the addresses and they felt no reason to give it any special priority. Now months later the computer had pulled it up to be checked for authenticity and low and behold the address had worked. As is protocol with these sorts of things a M.A.L.P. had been sent through the gate to check the surrounding areas and the planet had been cataloged for exploration at a future date.

Or rather it would have been cataloged for a future date had Daniel not been talking to the general at the time and seen the ruins displayed on the view screen. He had immediately become interested in them noticing that they appeared to be Ancient in origin. That alone would have caught his attention, however what really pushed him over the top and eventually resulted in the General scheduling this briefing for the immediate exploration of the planet was the strange crystalline structures that could be seen surrounding the back side of the complex.

Daniel had immediately asked to get a copy of the video and took off for his lab where he would be able to review the ruins closer. Sure enough hours later he visited General Hammond in his office requesting permission for a survey mission of the planet to review the ruins in greater detail as they had indeed seemed to be Ancient in origin. Jack had thought they were going to get away with sending somebody else when Daniel had pointed out that this was a very unique situation and required their personal attention. He had explained that it was extremely rare for the Ancients to build an outpost so close to another civilization or structure. Every one they had ever come across was isolated from prying eyes where as this one had been built less then a mile from several structures which appeared to be completely made of some type of crystal. That had been the end of it. The General had agreed and they were assigned the mission. So here Jack sat on a Saturday morning instead of sitting on his dock at his cottage fishing like he had planned to do this weekend and needless to say he was not happy.

Seeing that Daniel was about to start talking Jack sat up a little straighter and prepared to listen to what would likely be hours of needless information before going on another boring survey mission where he, Sam, and Teal'c would be bored to tears and Daniel would be like a kid in a candy store.

Daniel stepped to the side of the video screen and began to play the recording of the many video's that had been obtained via the M.A.L.P. on the planet in the last day. When Daniel had gotten approval for the mission he had requested that the M.A.L.P. gather more video of the various structures. Clearing his through slightly to get everybody's attention he began to brief his teammates on the upcoming survey mission.

"As you all know we found the address to this planet months ago on PS8-33M when Sam fell into that cave. At the time we had all assumed it was of no importance and it had been entered into the computer to be checked at a later today. Well that date was yesterday and as you can see what we discovered is quite exciting."

Seeing the blank stares from everybody occupying the briefing room he continued to elaborate. "This footage shows that the gate is located less then a quarter mile from a large complex of sorts which is clearly Ancient in origins based on the writings that you can see on the walls. As best we can tell the planet has been abandoned for ages and based on the wreckage you can see in the surrounding areas it seems that this particular facility fell to some type of disaster."

"However what is really interesting has very little to do with the Ancient structure. As you will remember the cave had been filled with a writing of the likes I had never seen before. I have spent quite some time trying to analyze it but have had no success in deciphering its meaning. What is interesting is that these structures contain the same style of writing as the writing on the cave walls. This is clearly displayed when viewing the video footage from the planet and the photos I took from the caves side by side." Daniel put several of the photos taken from the cave up on the screen which was split to show the video and the photos side by side.

"It's obvious that these structures are man made and yet the material they are made of is unlike anything we have ever seen before. It seems likely that whoever this race is or was is obviously very advanced and was interesting enough to warrant an Ancient outpost to be built right next to these structures, presumably to allow them to actively study the structures and the race that built them."

Jack hated these types of missions. Daniel on the other hand loved them. He had been talking for weeks about how much he was looking forward to exploring the ruins after they had discovered them during one of the many routine M.A.L.P explorations. The ones that had nothing to do with combat or seeking allies or even finding something to help them in their battle with the Goa'uld and the Replicators. These research missions were Daniels thing and they did nothing but drive Jack up the wall.

Daniel looked out across the room and was meet with interested stares from Teal'c and Sam as well as a bored look from Jack. He sighed inwardly as he faced to fact that he would never get any interest out of Jack for this type of mission.

"While all of these things are incredibly important the most interesting thing about this planet is the energy readings the M.A.L.P. Picked up. The main crystalline structure is putting out an incredible amount of energy and yet it does not appear to have any adverse effects. There does not appear to be any radiation of any type coming from the structure. This particular energy source was not present on the initial sweep of the planet. It appears to have activated when the M.A.L.P. entered the structure to get some readings. It then immediately shut down after a brief scan of our M.A.L.P. was completed. General Hammond has granted us 3 days to explore the ruins of the Ancient complex as well as the see if we can find anything of use or interest."

With those words Daniel shut off the footage and took his seat while looking over at Jack. Jack realizing that everybody was looking at him shook his head to clear his thoughts of his lost weekend of fishing and addressed the room. "Well won't this be fun. Saddle up team we leave in twenty minutes."

* * *

General Hammond stood above the Gate room looking down at SG1 as they prepared to depart. He had not missed the grumpy look on Jacks face when he had given the mission a go and effectively ruined his weekend of fishing at his cottage. He had almost looked like a little kid grumbling about how unfair it was under his breath. It really was quite funny. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he stepped forward to address the team.

"You have a go SG1. Good luck and stay safe. You're to check in every 24 hours to relay your status." With that the gate roared to life and the dialing sequence began. A moment later there was a loud swooshing sound and the wormhole was connected. He watched as one by one they disappeared through the gate followed by another M.A.L.P. which was carrying a variety of equipment that Dr. Jackson wanted to bring along. A moment later they were traveling millions of light years in a matter of seconds before appearing on the video provided by the M.A.L.P. at the scene.

He watched as Jack approached the M.A.L.P. and began to speak. "All's well in wonderland sir. We'll check-in in 24 hours. SG1 out." With that he turned away and proceeded with the rest of his team towards the ruins. A moment later the gate shut off again like it always did and he turned away from the screen to return to his office where a desk full of paperwork awaited him.

* * *

"Alright Danny boy this is your mission so show us your stuff." Said Jack as he leaded up against the M.A.L.P. watching Daniel snapping pictures of the huge complex in front of them. Daniel seemed to snap out of the daze he was in and remember what they were here for because at that moment he turned around and looked at Jack for a moment before taking the lead.

"Right well we only have 3 days and this complex is far too large if the readings are correct for us to cover in that time not to mention the 3 crystalline structures about a mile from here so I suggest we split into two teams to explore. The planet itself appears to be uninhabited so we shouldn't run into any trouble. Since Sam and I are the two that understand this stuff the best I suggest that Teal'c come with me and Jack you go with Sam."

Jack nodded his head in agreement. "Ok agreed. Keep communication open at all times and we report anything of interest. Daniel since you're the expert on Ancients why don't you and Teal'c start exploring the inside of the Ancient complex while Sam and I hike it out to those structures and see if we can't find anything interesting. We'll check back together regardless in 6 hours and bunker down for a meal before setting up camp. Well lets get to it shall we. I'm here instead of at home fishing so I might as well do something useful with my time." With those words Jack and Sam set off towards the tall crystalline structures in the distance while Daniel and Teal'c headed into the Ancient complex. Each team taking the proper recording equipment as well as some sampling kits to be able to do some carbon dating.

* * *

Clark Kent sat atop the water tower as he often did looking out over the town of Smallville for what seemed to be the millionth time in his life. The sun was just beginning to show its morning rays over the horizon and Clark had yet to return home to sleep. He had been sitting up here since the previous night when he had gotten into a fight with the love of his life Lana Lang or rather she had gotten into a fight with him.

His heart was in conflict with his mind and he simply didn't know what to do. It had been nearly six months since the night that his father had won the race for senator of Kansas before dieing mere hours later. At first Clark had convinced himself that his father's death had been his fault for going back in time and saving Lana's life but in the months that followed his father's death he had come to believe that this was not the case. It had been his father's time even if he didn't want to believe it and there had been nothing he could have done to stop it. The truth was his father had been having heart problems for quite some time before then and they had just finally caught up to him.

That however was not what his heart was in conflict over. He had been thinking all night about the fight with Lana and he just couldn't shake the feeling that he had truly lost her for good this time. The fight had been vicious on her part. The things she had said had hurt Clark more then she could possibly know but he had not shown it. The worst part was it was all his fault. Everything she had said had at least some truth to it. Yes she had exaggerated a bit but that was to be expected. He knew that she was hurting just like he was. They had shared that night together before his father died and then when he got his powers back he had separated himself from her again.

His refusal to tell her his secret had killed their relationship and that was what was weighing heavily on Clark's heart at the moment. He so wanted to tell her his secret but he couldn't get past the fact that she had died less then 12 hours after he had told her in the past and he knew that bringing her back was a one time deal. If it happened again there would be nothing he could do. He had known her since they were 7 years old although they hadn't spent any time together for several years there only to meet again in high school. Clark had eventually been able to start a friendship with her during his first year at high school. And now it was all gone.

Thinking back on the conversation with Lana for what must have been the hundredth time since it took place Clark tried to see if there was anything else he could have done differently.

START FLASHBACK

Clark stood alone in his loft staring out at the stars with tears in his eyes as he thought about that night 6 months ago. He had finally worked up the courage to tell Lana his secret and had brought her to his fortress of solitude via the caves on the outskirts of Smallville. There he had confessed all and proposed marriage and to his everlasting joy she had thrown herself into his arms and accepted whole heartedly. It had been the happiest moment of his life. It was just unfortunate that less then 12 hours later he would live the worst moment of his life as well.

They had returned just in time to catch the end of the celebration for his father's winning the senator spot for Kansas and then they had kissed and said goodbye for the night. Lana had gone immediately to talk to Lex and then things had gone horribly wrong. They had been involved in a high speed chase with Lex trying to apologize for the way he had acted at the mansion and Lana trying to get away from him without paying attention to the road. She had then been hit by a bus and that was it. Even with all of Clark's powers he couldn't save her.

He had proceeded to go back in time to relive the day only to break things off with her for her own protection. That had been the beginning of the end which was why he was so very surprised to hear her walking up behind him. Clark quickly turned around and smiled sadly at her as she approached.

"Hello Lana. It's nice to see you again. I sort of got the feeling you were avoiding me. I can't say I blame you." said Clark as he looked into her eyes. Lana smiled sadly back at him and he knew right away that things were not going to go well with this little talk of theirs.

"Hello Clark. It's nice to see you too. I have been avoiding you, I just didn't know how to face you and I figured I needed some time away from you to think things through. You know Clark I really do love you. I would like nothing more then for us to start our relationship over again and get back to where we were before." Replied Lana as she continued to stare into his eyes as if she was trying to discern what his thoughts were.

Clark nodded and smiled a genuine smile at her that he knew made her heart melt. "I'd like that Lana. I've missed you so much."

Lana smiled back at Clark hoping that he truly meant that. She had decided already before she came here that this was the last chance she would give Clark Kent. She loved him with all her heart but if he couldn't give her all of his heart then she couldn't be with him and so with that in mind she took a deep breath and stated the question that she knew would either solidify their newfound relationship or end it once and for all.

"Clark you know how much I care for you. You have always been there for me and I want to be there for you but if this relationship is going to work then we both have to be totally honest with each other. I can't have a relationship with somebody who holds back a part of themselves from me. This is the last chance Clark. Please tell me what your secret is. What is it that you find so hard to tell me, that you won't trust me with? Please just tell me this one thing and we can go back to the way we were before." Stated Lana as she felt the tears well up in her eyes and she silently begged him to do this one thing for her.

Her heart fell and the tears fell with it as she saw the sadness fill his eyes and she knew before he even said the words what they would be. She turned her back on him as the words came and she began to walk away.

"I'm sorry Lana but I can't tell you. It's for your own safety. This isn't something you deserve to live with. It will cause you nothing but problems. Please don't turn away from me. I swear that I will always be there for you. This isn't important enough to ruin what we had together." Pleaded Clark even as he knew that his words were a lie. Or at least most of them were. It was for her safety that he kept his secret from her but it was a complete lie that it wasn't important. Even though he knew she accepted him in the past that could have changed now and it was not exactly everyday that you find yourself in a relationship with an alien.

Lana continued to walk away but when she reached the stairs she spun around. She was so very angry at him. He didn't care for her at all and she was going to show him just who he had been screwing with. She walked right up to him and slapped him as hard as she could across the face before yelling at him with all she had. "I hate you Clark Kent. Do you hear me? You never gave a damn about me and I can't believe that I gave myself to you. You make me sick. I wish I had never met you. You have caused me nothing but pain and sorrow and I'm through with it. As far as I'm concerned you never even existed to me. I never want to see your face again. Your nothing but a lying son of a bitch and I can't believe I ever cared about you. You just stay the hell away from me." She had continued ranting at him for another few minutes and then she spun back around on her heals and ran down the stairs and out of the barn before he could even say a thing in response.

END FLASHBACK

It had taken 3 years for Clark to start a relationship with Lana. They had both shown their feelings for each other and he had been sure that they were going to get together. Then he had thrown it all away. It was true and he knew it. It had been his choice. 100 percent his choice and he had forced her away. He hated himself more then he could ever remember and not for the first time he cursed his origins and wished that he had just been a normal every day teenager. They had talked about their feelings and their past and in the end Lana had asked for only one thing and that was the one thing that Clark had been unwilling to give her.

She had wanted the truth. She had wanted to know what his secret was. She had said that no relationship could work out if there were secrets between them and wasn't interested in entering into one if he couldn't trust her. It had been a common bone that they had picked at over the past several years and he had seriously considered telling her again that night but in the end he had decided against it.

He had flashed back to all the problems it had caused Pete and the near death experiences that he had suffered from it. Then he had flashed back to the night he had told her his secret and the way she had died not long after and he just couldn't bring himself to put her in danger. That was when it happened. She had slapped him and told him that she couldn't believe that she meant so little to him that he would refuse to trust her enough to keep his confidence and to just tell her what he was hiding. Then she had dropped the bombshell. She was planning on leaving to go back to Paris. She had intended to stay in Smallville if they got together but now she just didn't see any point.

And so Clark had come to the tower to think. All night he had thought about the years since he learned about his powers and his origins. He had thought about his relationship with Lana and how long he had waited to get together with her. He had thought about the dangers of her knowing his secret and the benefits. It was true that Pete had been in danger because of his secret but truth be told so had Lana just in a different way.

She was his friend and as his friend people would logically think that she would be privy to his secrets. All night he had tried to convince himself that he could let her go and that it would be better for her. But now as he watched the sun peak over the horizon he realized that he had to tell her. He was facing the very real possibility that she would walk out of his life for ever and that included loosing her friendship, something that he didn't think that he could live without.

Sighing inwardly to himself Clark realized that it was time he returned to the farm. His mother would be wondering where he was and he really needed to get some sleep. He had just over a month before the end of school and the date in which Lana would leave for Paris. During that time he would have to find a way to tell her his secret and prey that she would give them another chance.

Clark jumped down from the tower and dropped the 100 or so feet to the ground before landing easily and speeding away towards the farm. Later today when he woke he would go talk to Pete about Lana. If he was going to tell her about his secret he would want Pete's help and he could certainly use some help planning it out.

* * *

Daniel walked into a small room in one of the many sub-levels of the Ancient complex he and Teal'c had been exploring today. He and Teal'c had been searching within the ruins for nearly 6 hours now and had found little of interest. He knew that he had less then a half hours before having to meet with Jack and Sam and he was hoping that he would be able to find something of interest before then. If not tomorrow was always another day. Another full day in fact whereas today had been cut short because of their briefing in the morning. They hadn't gotten to actually head out until early afternoon.

The one thing they had been able to discover was that the disaster that hit this complex was a meteor shower. They had come across meteor fragments of all sizes imbedded within the inner walls of the structure. In addition they had discovered extensive interior damage from some of the larger strikes. In some areas whole sections of wall were destroyed leaving the area completely inaccessible to them. The damage to the complex was extensive and they had found themselves climbing over downed columns and through broken walls all day so far. Until now that is. This was the first room that they had come across that wasn't heavily damaged in fact it was in surprisingly good shape.

According to the readings they were getting this whole area was extremely well shielded and surprisingly the shielding was still active. However that was not what Daniel found interesting about this particular room. No in fact what he found interesting was that the room seemed to have power but more then that it appeared to have a fully functional information console. Looking around Daniel was very much aware that this room was heavily fortified compared to the other rooms, which was more then likely why it survived while so much of the rest of the complex lay in ruins? The question is what was so important about this room that required it to be so well fortified and for it to continue to have power while the rest of the complex lay powerless.

As soon as they walked into the room the door slammed shut and a bright light washed over them which Daniel immediately recognized as a scanner. Almost immediately after this started Daniel began to become concerned. The Ancients would not have placed such a device within this room unless it housed something important and if it was that important they would not have wanted intruders. His suspicions were proven true only seconds later as Teal'c was beamed away and placed inside a holding cell which immediately showed up on a view screen on the other side of the room.

"Teal'c can you hear me? Are you alright Teal'c?" Yelled Daniel into his communicator as he watched Teal'c on the video screen across the room. "Yes I am fine Daniel Jackson although I appear to be in some type of holding cell. I am unsure as to where the cell is located however the room does appear to be secure and has a similar structure to the one we just occupied."

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief before replying. "Alright Teal'c I'm going to see if I can find out anything with the console in this room. Contact Jack and fill him in on your status while I see if I can find a way to get you out of there." replied Daniel.

Daniel approached the station on the far side of the room and began to work his way through the security systems to find out exactly what had happened and where Teal'c had been taken. After a few minutes he came across the protocols for the security for the room and realized with a start that they had in fact been very lucky. The system was setup to only allow Ancients to enter this room. Anybody else that entered would immediately be transported to holding cells in a sub-level below them.

This again startled him as he had been sure that they were on the lowest level of the complex. According to the schematic in front of him however the complex had 2 further levels. The first was a prison level of sorts that contained many holding cells for just this purpose. The second was listed as a research bay of sorts that had an incredible amount of security around it. For starters this particular lab was located nearly two miles below the surface of the planet. That was nearly one and a half miles deeper then the prison level which was located directly below the remove he was standing in.

Only Ancients were able to access the bay and according to the readings absolutely no weapons were allowed within the research bay. A slew of other security measures were also included.

He could only assume that since he had once been ascended that the system recognized him as one. If that was true it may also have allowed Jack to enter but it would have certainly refused Sam. Daniel spent the next twenty minutes trying to figure out how to beam Teal'c out of the cell and back to him. The system seemed to accept his input but refused to beam him into this room.

"Teal'c I'm going to have to beam to just outside the room and you'll have to stay there and wait for me. The security for this room is incredible and I can't by pass it. As best I can tell myself and Jack would be the only ones out of our group that could safely access this room and if I read this information correctly it only gets worse from here on in. Hang on I'm going to beam you out now."

A moment later Teal'c found himself standing in the corridor just out side the room he had entered previously staring forward as Daniel approached. "Have you discovered anything of use Daniel Jackson?" Daniel stopped just outside the door and nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, as best I can tell this room is the gateway or access point into a highly secured research lab in a sub level well over a mile below us. It appears to be the only way into this level and the shielding around it makes it impossible to beam in except via this room. I can't find any information on exactly what this lab contains but it's obvious that whatever it is, it was extremely important to the ancients, enough so that they made sure that it would be impossible for anybody other then one of them to enter the lab."

"I think we need to call Sam and Jack so that Jack and I can investigate further. The Ancients would not have had this much security on this lab unless it housed something extremely important to them. Even the ancient data repositories didn't have this kind of security on them. What ever is in here is defiantly worth a look."

"This sounds like a sensible course of action Daniel Jackson; however it is time for our rendezvous with Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter. Perhaps we should meet with them and return at a later time." responded Teal'c in his usual bored tone of voice. Daniel nodded his head in agreement and together they made their way back to the front of the complex where they would meet with Jack and Sam.

A few minutes later they met up with Jack and Sam and began to setup camp. It took nearly half an hour to setup camp but when it was finished the group gathered around the fire which was currently covered by several pots in which their dinner was preparing.

Jack assuming that now was as good as any time to go over the days discoveries cleared his through to get the others attention before speaking. "So Danny boy what did you find. Obviously you got Teal'c out of the cell but I would love to know exactly how and why he ended up there in the for place." questioned Jack.

"Teal'c is fine Jack, I was able to access the beaming controls and beam him back to my location. The room appeared to be of great interest but I'm going to need you to come with me if we're to investigate further. The security makes it impossible for anyone who isn't of Ancient origins to enter." Replied Daniel as he relaxed a bit.

"So what exactly is it guarding?" inquired Jack. Daniel paused for only a moment before responding. "Well I can tell you that it's guarding a research lab. I really well secured research lab to be exact. As to what exactly is inside of said lab, I couldn't tell you. The system doesn't make any mention what so ever of what is there. In fact it looks almost as if everything within the lab is separate from the complex itself with the exception of this room. And the only link it has to this room is a transport pad of some sort which beams you between the two locations."

When Jack replied a moment later he was smiling brightly. "That's what I like to hear. First thin in the morning we'll change teams. Teal'c and Sam will go back to the crystal based structures while you and I Danny boy go take a look at this mysterious lab you found. Maybe if we're lucky we'll find some super powerful weapon or the designs for an Ancient space ship or something useful like that. That would be something we can use to beat the crap out of those ugly snake bastards." Said Jack as he moved forward to work on their meal a little more.

Daniel was about to respond but Sam beat him to it this time. "Well sir I'm not sure if it would be something of that nature but it was almost certainly something of great important. If I had to guess I would say it likely has something to do with whatever they discovered while researching those structures. Daniel said himself that they found nothing else of use or interest within the complex. Isn't that a bit strange for what is obviously a research complex that is obviously here to study whatever those structures are. I think it's safe to say they found something big and decided that it needed as much security as they could give it. I'm surprised that the systems are still working after all these years. We know for a fact that the Ancients haven't been around for thousands of years." Said Sam.

Jack frowned likely before smiling again. "Well as long as it's something useful and not something stupid like a new way to make Shepard's pie then I'm happy." Said Jack.

Sam nodded before turning to Teal'c and Daniel to give them an update on what they found. "Well our search was a little more productive then yours apparently. Those structures are incredible. There is practically no damage at all which is really surprising because there are meteors of all sizes surrounding the structures. You can tell that the structures were struck many times by the dents that can be seen but that's all there is in the way of damage with the exception of a single tower from the smallest of the structures which looks like it was struck several times weakening it before it was struck by a large meteor which ripped it off."

"We only searched the main structure today but we found an amazing control center of sorts in the heart of building. That's where the power source was coming from. I was able to study it in detail and it's like nothing I have ever seen before. It has to have at least five times the power as the Zero Point Modules that we use to access the Atlantis gate and the one we found looks like it's barely reached its half way point. It's incredible. There's evidence that the Ancients were researching it as well as there was research equipment through the control centre."

"It was actually quite easy to find that particular room as it was the only thing room that was accessible to us. As far as I can tell the Ancients must have found a way to enter the structure and open the doors to the control center at which point they spent all their time researching that. There were doorways all over the place which were sealed tight and none of the systems seemed to react to me. The other two structures were sealed completely as far as we could tell but we only just walked by them so we might have missed something." said Sam with excitement in her voice.

Jack tuned her out at this point as she and Daniel began to talk excitedly about the possibilities of such a technology and about what might be within the research lab under the Ancient complex.

As far as he was concerned they could talk about this all night. He on the other hand was going to eat dinner and then get some shut eye. Tomorrow he would have to put up with Daniel yapping excitedly in his ear all morning about whatever it was they found and that was not something he was looking forward to.

* * *

Clark awoke from his slumber feeling refreshed and eager to set off to talk to Pete. All day while he slept he had dreamed of different ways that he would tell Lana and the future that they would have together. His heart ached at the chance that he might loose her forever if he didn't do this and that was something he just couldn't stand. Shaking of the remnants of sleep Clark jumped up and into the shower to prepare himself for a visit to Pete's place. By the time he exited the shower it was about five o'clock and he quickly got dressed.

He had made it home just in time to eat breakfast and do his chores after which point he went to bed and slept the day away. His Mother wasn't particularly happy about this point but had ignored it because she could tell something had been bothering her son since the night before. She had heard yelling and screaming coming from the barn late the night before and could tell it was Lana.

She had decided to leave Clark to handle it himself. She hadn't been able to hear what was being said but she could guess. She had tried to explain to Clark that if he truly loved Lana then he would have to tell her his secret before they could really be together. She had explained that while there were risks in doing so there were also benefits and she could tell that those benefits would likely out weight the risks.

Clark had refused time and time again saying that she had died once because of knowing his secret and that he couldn't risk that again. In the end she had relented and let him live his own life. It was times like now that she had wished she had pushed him harder. It was tearing him apart and she knew it. He truly loved the girl and for a brief time they had been blissfully happy together while he didn't have his powers. Now they couldn't stand each other or at least Lana couldn't stand Clark and she had the feeling that last night might have been the end of what once was a great friendship and an even better relationship.

Clark bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen to find his mother sitting at the table just getting ready to start eating. And Low and behold there was Pete sitting with them. He smiled brightly and walked over to the table to take his seat. "I'm glad you're here Pete I was just about to call you. I need to talk to you after dinner. I could use some advice."

"Hey Clark you're looking happier then I expected you would be. I saw Lana in town today at the Talon and she had some choice words about you. I heard about your fight last night and I figured you would need somebody to talk to about it." Clark's smile dropped off his face and his mother looked up from her meal to look at him. Clark smiled sadly at his mother and best friend before shaking his head of his thoughts and turning back to Pete.

"You heard what happened I assume Pete." Pete nodded his head and Clark turned to address his mom. "It's not a simple fix any more mom. You were right all along. I should have told her again and just been done with it so that we could be together but instead of deluded myself into thinking it was for her own good that she not know. The fact is I was scared and that was the only thing stopping me. I've come to a decision. Last night's fight made it plainly clear to me that if I don't do something I am going to loose Lana for good. Hell I have as good as lost her already. At this point all I can do is work on getting her back and there is only one way that I can think of that will have any chance at success and that's to tell her the truth.

She was really upset mom. You should have seen her. She wanted to start our relationship up again last night. That was what she came to talk about. The only thing she asked in return from me was that I be honest with her and trust her, to tell her my secret. She said that she couldn't have a relationship with a man that couldn't trust her because secrets only caused problems in the long term and that was what she was looking for, a long term relationship. She loves me mom and I love her but she's made up her mind. We fought about my secret and then slapped me across the face saying that she hated me and that she couldn't stand the fact that I hid something from her."

"The worst part is that as soon as she was finished with that she told me that she's decided to go back to Paris indefinitely. I have about a month to stop her and after that I'm sure that she'll walk out of my life forever if I let her. So I've decided to tell her and hope that she will finally understand just why I held it back from her as long as I did. I'll even beg her if I have to. I don't care about my pride or anything else for that matter any more. All I care about is being able to get her back and go back to the way things were while I didn't have my powers.

I trust her and I know that if I ever want to have anything with her, even just a friendship and most certainly if I want to have a chance at a relationship with her then I have to tell her. Otherwise it will always hang over our heads and she will never forgive me. I have come to the conclusion that despite what happened last time I told her that I will just have to try harder to protect her. She's worth the effort and it's as simple as that. I just need Pete's help on figuring out how to go about telling her again and how to keep her from freaking out when I tell her."

Martha gasped when she heard this and then smiled brightly at her son. "Clark are you sure this is what you want? I know that I have advised you before that if you really loved her then this is what you should do. But remember that there is no going back after this. Once you tell her you can't take it back. I'll support your decision regardless of what it is."

Clark nodded his head furiously before replying. "Yes mom. I thought about this all night last night and most of today while I slept. It may be dangerous for her to know my secret but people will always think that she knows it anyways. She has been my friend for a long time now and that in itself puts her in danger. She deserves to know why she's in danger and I know that I can protect her. Mom I need this. I want her in my life and I don't know if I could stand watching her walk away. Last night really hurt me. I've never felt such pain before in my life and it had nothing to do with her hitting me. It was emotional pain. I was faced with the very real fact that I was about to loose her. I trust her, with my very life if need be. I know she'll keep my secret and I know she'll be able to handle it."

Martha nodded her head slowly. She knew that it was Clark's choice ultimately and it was obvious that he had been thinking about this for a long time. She knew him well enough to know that when he had set his mind to something there was no changing it and this was one of those times. Pete looked over to Clark and smiled. "Well man I have to say it's about bloody time. I always knew you would spill the beans to her one day and frankly I think it's the right choice. Now you can stop pining over her and get down to business. This way I won't have to listen to you whine about her all the time." laughed Pete as he turned back to his meal.

Clark chuckled softly as did his mother. It was true that Pete and mother had been on the receiving end of one of his rants on numerous occasions about how he wished he could be with Lana. It had only been a matter of time. He had loved her since they were 7 years old. Of course he didn't know it was love at the time but now he did.

They continued to eat dinner and talk back and forth about random things such as how things were going with the farm and how Pete's parents were doing. Clark bugged Pete about his crush on Chloe and tried to get him for the millionth time since he found out about it to confess his feelings to her and get it over and done with. And like always he countered with the usual 'I'll tell mine when you tell yours' speech. Of course that didn't work quite as well this time since Clark had already admitted he was going to be telling Lana his secret within the month which he proceeded to point out again to Pete and tell him that it was a deal, he would have to confess soon after Clark had told Lana.

An hour later when dinner was finished and the dishes were done Clark and Pete headed out to the loft to talk about Clark's upcoming unveiling to Lana and to put together some ideas on how to best handle such a thing. They reached the loft out in the barn and Clark sat in the chair by his desk while Pete sat on the couch. "Honestly Clark I think the first thing you need to do is give her a few days or so to cool down. She was pissed today when I saw her and it was obvious she was just as sad as she was angry. I think you need to give her at least the next three days to cool down before you talk to her. This type of secret is going to take a lot out of her. I should know. I felt like I had been hit with a sludge hammer for about the next week after I found out and I hadn't slept with you. My point is she's going to need to be in a stable emotional state to be able to handle it. Dropping it on her now will not go over well."

"With that said it may do us some good if I were to go over there tonight around close and talk to her for a bit. We aren't the best of friends or anything but she still knows that she can talk to me and I might be able to at least start the healing process. Just to let her know just how upset and sorry you are and let her know that I think you're ready to open up to her. I can maybe talk to her a little bit about you and your secret. I won't tell her what it is but I can lay it straight for her and make her understand that the reason you kept it from her was because you were worried about how many problems it would cause for her. Maybe tell her some of my personal experiences about what's happened. I think if I'm truthful and up front with her about this stuff then she'll calm down a lot quicker and she'll be ready to talk to you come later this week."

Clark nodded thoughtfully for a moment before replying. "Yeah I agree with you on all of that Pete. She'll likely take it better if she understands that you know my secret and that it's caused you a lot of problems since finding out. I'd rather give her the chance to walk away before hand if she decides that it's too big a reasonability and not worth the risk. At the same time I want her to understand my reasoning for not telling her before now. So the question is how and where I tell her. She's not going to believe me without a demonstration and I can't just 'accidentally' reveal my powers to her. She'd be mad that I didn't trust her with it. I have to actually come out and tell her to her face. But then I'm going to have to prove it. That's not the type of conversation you want to be having in the middle of the talon or something."

"Another question is do I do it by myself or should I have you there with me to calm her down. What happens if she freaks out on me and runs for it? She could just as easily get totally spooked and run to Lex or the police or something and tell them. The police and most other people would think she was crazy likely but Lex would know otherwise. He would put the pieces together and then I don't know what would happen."

Pete laughed out loud and smiled at Clark. "Those are valid questions and concerns Clark but I think you're over reacting. I don't think Lana will freak out. At least not to the degree you're talking about. Yeah she'll be surprised but keep in mind Clark she already knows that something is going on. As soon as she finds out she is going to put two and two together and understand just how much you have done for everybody. It's probably a good idea for me to be close by at least just incase but other then that I think your fine. As for her revealing your secret I don't think you have to worry about that. Trust me when I say that was the furthest thing from my mind when I found out. With that said If Lex did find out some how I can tell you exactly what would happen. That bastard would cart you off to one of his private testing grounds in a heart beat. Even so I am telling you that Lana is not going to rat you out." Stated Pete.

Clark nodded to the first part but sighed at his words about Lex. "I know you don't like Lex, Pete. But truth be told I think that he can change and that is something I really want to work with him on. Our relationship is strained right now. In fact it is almost non-existent but I still think that there is a good possibility that I can straighten him out." said Clark and then added silently to himself 'Maybe_ with a little help from Lana.'_

"Yeah I know how you feel man and I respect that. But I just don't trust him. Regardless were a little off topic here. Now as for where you tell her I'm not quite sure. I would say you have a few choices. We could do it here at your place. Weather that's in your house or here in the loft would be up to you. I know she feels safe here in the loft. You two have been friends for quite some time and this has always been like a get away for any of us. It's always been a place where we can just sit and relax. However I'm not sure it's the most secure place and with the state of your relationship at this point she might feel a little awkward being on your home turf so to speak. The Talon is another option if we were to do it in the evening and you could talk up in her apartment. Really the best choice is to leave it up to Lana to tell you where she feels safest and tell her that it has to be here or there so that there's nobody around to eavesdrop on the conversation."

Clark nodded thoughtfully again before agreeing. It all made sense and there was a lot of logic in the way Pete laid it out. They continued to talk for several hours before Pete decided to call it a night around nine o'clock promising to stop by the Talon around 11pm so that he could talk with Lana and that he would stop by in the morning to fill him in on how things went. Clark decided to head back into the house and get some more sleep. He wasn't really tired but he needed to be up in the morning to do chores and talk with Pete and there was no way he would do that if he didn't sleep tonight. A few hours later Clark Kent fell into a dream filled sleep while Pete Ross made his way toward the Talon to talk to a certain brown haired heart throb.

* * *

Once again the scanner washed over both of Daniel and Jack and as Daniel expected they were both allowed to enter. Walking over to the station again Daniel preceded to power up the underground lab and a few minutes later activated the entrance sequence which beamed them both into the hidden lab.

Jack looked around carefully before laying his eyes on what looked to be a ship of some type. Judging by its size and shape he assumed it was a fighter or bomber of some sort but conceded to himself that for all he knew it was a transport ship. A big smile came across his face at the sight of it and he whistled out load. "Now that is what I'm talking about. Why couldn't you find us more secret rooms with hidden space ships in them Danny boy instead of all this history junk we always find?"

Daniel rolled his eyes at Jacks comment and Jack laughed silently. "For your information Jack that history junk as you so eloquently put it has saved our butts just as many times as the weapons and ships we have found." Daniel shook his head and walked quietly away from where Jack was looking over the ship and trying to find an entrance to get onboard and take a closer look.

He had gone no more then 20 feet from Jack when he stopped in his tracks staring at a stasis chamber in front of him. Directly in front of the chamber was another station and flanking the chamber on either side were 2 view screens both of which were turned on and displaying information that he could only guess at first glance was information on the cellular makeup of the being stored within the chamber and research material about whatever research they were doing.

Taking a few more steps Daniel stepped up to the control panel and began scanning through the material. "This is going to take forever. Most of it is in Ancient and what's not in Ancient is written in the language from the structures out there. It doesn't look like they were able to translate it either. Everything that's in that language is just recordings taken from the facility they gained access to. For once I would love to be able to just have everything in English so I didn't have to spend all day translating It." mumbled Daniel. A second later he jumped back as a female or rather an image of a female appeared in front of the chamber just behind the console. He was just about to try and figure out what happened when it began to speak to Daniel.

"You have activated the virtual interactive research logs for project hope. Please state your inquiry." Daniel stared at the women in front of him for a moment before it hit him. She had just spoken in English instead of Ancient. Daniel stepped forward and asked the first question on his mind. "Why are you speaking English instead of Ancient?" The women paused for barely a moment before answering.

"A request was made for English to be the primary language used within the interface. Would you prefer a different language?" replied the hologram. Daniel shook his head and replied no. he should have known that but no matter. He had to find out what they were doing here. "Explain the operations that took place within this lab." Stated Daniel.

"The scope of that request is extensive and would take many weeks to fulfill. If you wish to continue with this line of questioning please say so. Alternatively you may ask specific questions or the research logs may be displayed for your review in the language of your choice." Responded the image of the women. Daniel thought for a moment. If there was that much information then he would need to be far more specific otherwise they may not find anything of use during there stay here.

"Who is the women in the stasis field and what is her importance?" inquired Daniel. A moment later the women replied. "The woman within the stasis chamber is believed to be from the planet Krypton and was the only remaining inhabitant of the Kryptonian structures located behind this facility. She currently suffers from an unknown illness and was located in the stasis chamber she is currently stored in. What little is known of her and her race was discovered from observing her genetic makeup and exploring the structures she was found in. The ship located within this bay is believed to be hers as well as it was the only ship remaining. To the best of our knowledge her people abandoned this planet long before we discovered it and for whatever reason left her behind. The ship itself was undamaged but nothing is known about it. We were completely unsuccessful in our attempts to open it or learn anything about it what so ever.

"A great deal of time was spent attempting to find a cure for her ailment however none was found. As a result the subject was kept in stasis for study. According to our research and scans of the pilot it is believed that her race posses abilities and strengths far greater then any race we have come across before. Their race would have been a very powerful ally in our fight against the Wraith and the Goa'uld and as such we set forth to find out as much about them as we could."

Daniel stared at both the hologram as well as the women in the chamber for a moment in interest. For her to be of so much interest to the Ancients her race really must have been something else. He was just about to ask another question when he was startled from his thoughts by Jack.

"What are you up to over here Danny boy? Who's this and what's up with the lady in the chamber?" asked Jack. Daniel jumped at the question having not noticed he was there before spinning around. "I'm not sure about a lot yet. This seems to have been a research lab that was dedicated to the research of a race from a planet called Krypton. According to what the computer has told me so far their race was extremely powerful but is believed to have been devastated or destroyed some how as they have abandoned dozens of their outposts through out this galaxy. The women in the chamber is believed to be one of the last remaining living members of her race and for all accounts and purposes she is as good as dead. She won't last more then an hour outside that chamber. According to these notes this was the first time they encountered this race or their technology but in the years that past after wards they have discovered dozens of other instances of their outposts. Usually strongly clocked but now that they had found one that wasn't cloaked they were able to find those that were. According to this though every outpost they found was abandoned. I'm still trying to find out more information." replied Daniel before turning back around and addressing the hologram.

"What makes their race so powerful that they would be of interest to you?" inquired Daniel The hologram waited for a moment and then responded as usual. "The Cellular makeup of the Kryptonian woman shows that they have super heightened senses and powers when within a system with a sun. Our research shows that their genetic makeup reacts to the radiation from a sun. As far as we can tell this reaction differs depending on the type of sun. Based on the information we were able to collect from tests we ran showed that they are at their strongest under a yellow sun and their weakest under a red or green sun. A blue sun would also allow them heightened powers and would range in the middle between a yellow and a red Sun." replied the hologram. Daniel took in the information even though it didn't really answer his question or rather it did answer his question it just didn't give him all the information he was looking for.

"What exactly are the powers that this race posses?" asked Daniel. "When under either a blue or yellow sun the Kryptonian people are imbued with increased strength and speed. In addition they have the heightened sense of hearing and sight. The exact extent of these powers is not known as the subject would not survive long enough outside the chamber to participate in a demonstration. Other enhancements are also likely however we were unable to speculate about what these may be. We were only able to see that certain systems within their bodies were affected when introduced to various types of solar radiation." Commented the computer.

Daniel stared blankly at the interface in front of him for a moment. If even half that information was true then the Ancients had been right to be interested in such an ally. A great number of the systems out there were home to either yellow or blue suns and as such this race would be a powerful ally. The question is was this just hearsay or had they been able to prove any of it.

"Were you ever able to prove any of this information on their powers?" Daniel had his fingers crossed. Even if there was only one of them left he or she could be a powerful ally if any of this was true. "The genetic information we were able to pull proved that all of these things were true. Even in her weakened state the subject was impervious to any of our devices that were trying to penetrate her skin for samples. We were forced to use scanners. The cellular information we retrieved showed that their bodies underwent drastic changes when exposed to the radiation from various stars."

Daniel nodded his head in understanding and looked over at Jack. He had a glint in his eye that showed he was just as interested and was thinking about the benefits of having just such an ally on their side. "You mentioned that they were nearly invincible. Were you able to determine what was causing her illness even if you couldn't fix it?" inquired Daniel with a curious look on his face.

"Detailed scans showed that the alien's body was reacting to a microscopic biological organism which produced a very small amount of radiation. This particular form of radiation appears to have a harmful effect on their race. According to our scans her body's blood stream is saturated with these organisms. At the time of this study we did not have the technology to clean her blood stream."

"It should be noted that her body showed a reduced level of decay when exposed to the radiation of a yellow sun. However nothing was found to suggest that this would be helpful in any way other then prolonging her death. As best we can tell the radiation from this organism when applied from the outside would usually result in a weakened state and extensive pain however extended exposure breaks down their cells resulting in death. Since the source is internal the resulting cellular damage is compounded as it does not need to penetrate their skin." Replied the hologram.

Jack looked over at Daniel and smiled brightly. "Well Danny boy it looks like we may of hit the jackpot here. So the question is how do we find the last surviving member of this super race and get him or her to help us kick some snake ass?" laughed Jack. Daniel rolled his eyes before turning back to the hologram. This line of questioning and many others continued for hours on end through the rest of the day as both Daniel and Jack tried to learn as much as they could about the mysterious race.

* * *

Pete pulled up in front of the Talon at ten minutes before 11PM and shut off the truck. The shop would close any minute now and he could already see the last of the waitresses leaving for the night while Lana cleaned up. Getting out of his car Pete walked towards the door and stepped inside.

Lana for her part was busy cleaning up the tables and whipping down the counters with her back to the door when she heard the chime announcing that somebody had just stepped inside. "I'm sorry we're closed for the night." Came her sweet voice from the back of the shop opposite to where Pete was. She had replied without turning around and so she was quite surprised when the reply came.

"That's alright Lana I'm not really here for coffee and muffins tonight. I was hoping I could talk to you for a bit if you have a moment." Replied Pete as he locked the door and took a few more steps into the shop. Lana whirled around with a smile on her face before laughing softly and replying. "Of course Pete you know I always have time for my friends. What I can I do for you tonight?"

Pete smiled and strolled forward to the back of the shop and took a seat at the counter. "Well how about we grab a couple cups of coffee and some muffins and we grab a seat to have a little chat." Said Pete as he continued to smile at her. Lana smiled in return and nodded her head in agreement. "That sounds like a great idea. I could use a break anyways." And with that she went about preparing two coffees and a few muffins for the two of them before following Pete over to one of the booth like tables in the corner.

"So what do you want to talk about Pete?" asked Lana with a smile as she took a sip of her coffee and broke off a small peace of her oatmeal muffin, popping it into her mouth. Pete followed suit and they began conversing casually about the days events and just generally catching up. After a few minutes Pete finished his muffin and was slowly sipping on his coffee when he decided it was time to reveal his true motives for being her tonight.

"I was hoping to talk to you about Clark for a few minutes Lana. Or more specifically about Clark's secret." Said Pete casually. The smile on Lana's face slipped off and a frown replaced it. "I appreciate your trying to help Pete but really I'm done with Clark Kent. He can't seem to trust me with this mysterious secret of his and it constantly drives a wedge between us. If he would just tell me I know we could be together but I've tried everything and he just won't budge. So at the end of the school year I'm going to Paris and I'm going to forget all about Clark Kent and his damn secret." Replied Lana as she took another sip of her coffee.

Pete nodded briefly and smiled knowingly at Lana before leaning back in his seat and staring up at the ceiling with a strange look on his face. "Well Lana that's just it. He does trust you. In fact he trusts you a lot more then he trusts anybody else and I know for a fact he cares for you. It's the very reason that he has been so tight lipped about his secret with you. He didn't want you to have to deal with the consequences of knowing or rather he didn't want to until he found out yesterday that you were going to walk out of his life forever. I had a very interesting conversation with our boy Clark tonight after dinner and he seems to have had a change of heart. That's why I'm here. I told him to give you some time to cool off and that I would talk to you to make sure you understood what you were getting yourself into."

"You know Lana he really loves you and I know that sounds corny and all but it's true. I came here tonight because I want you to understand just what it means to know Clark's secret. I've known for quite some time now and I'm telling you it's not exactly a walk in the park. He wasn't exaggerating when he told you that it's dangerous to know his secret. Even so he has wanted to tell you every day since you two became friends. His parents talked him out of it at least a dozen times a year since he started high school but tonight he put his foot down. He told his mom that he felt you deserved to know and that if he was to have any chance at a future with you that he wanted you to know what you were getting into."

Lana stared at Pete in shook for several minutes. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was just too good to be true. Clark had finally decided to come clean with her. He wanted to be with her so he had finally decided to tell her everything. But Pete had said he had wanted to tell her for years. So why hadn't he? What could be so important, so bad that he would be afraid to tell her? What's more, Pete knew. He had known for ages. He didn't seem to mind but it was obvious that he truly believed that whatever this secret was, it was indeed dangerous. She was brought out of her musings by Pete's voice before she could continue that thought.

"Lana, are you there? Hello Earth to Lana Lang this is ground control can you hear us?" laughed Pete as he snapped his fingers in front of her face. Lana jumped slightly and smiled shyly at Pete as her cheeks took on a slightly rosy tint. "Sorry Pete I was in my own little world there. So where do we start. What exactly is this secret that has Clark so spooked and what could possibly be so dangerous about it?" asked Lana

Pete sighed loudly and looked her in the eyes before shaking his head. "Lana first of all it's not my place to tell you his secret but I assure you that Clark wants to tell you. He's made the decision to tell you so now it's up to you. I'm here tonight to give you some insight into just how real the dangers are and to make sure you realize what it means to hold his secret. You need to make the choice to listen to him. Clark wants you to understand what this information is going to do to your life and he wants you to decide if you want to find out what his secret is or if you would rather just call it quits. Now I know this sounds really bloody weird but I'm being straight up with you Lana. I must sound like I'm trying to pimp Clark off to you or something but you know me well enough to know I wouldn't screw around with you. You need to take this seriously. Do you understand?"

Lana nodded and Pete sighed again. This would be the difficult part. "Ok first thing to understand is that this secret is huge Lana. You have to swear to protect it, with your life if needed and trust me when I say it's come to that for me already on two separate occasions. Clark was there both times to save my ass but this just shows you how dangerous it is. If his secret got out Lana it would ruin his life and the life of his mother. Smallville would become one giant freak show and everybody who had ever known Clark in any way, shape, or form would have their lives picked apart to see how they played into his life. It's as simple as that. This whole town would suffer in one way or another and being that are his closet friends you can guarantee that our names would be at the top of the pecking order. I'm not being mellow dramatic here either I'm being serious. He would be on the run for the rest of his life, hunted like a common animal and the rest of us would never get a moments peace again."

Lana stared in shock at his words. She had never considered that it could be this serious. She didn't know what it was yet but it had to be something huge and important if the stakes were this high. Lana nodded her head in a sign to continue and Pete went on. "Alright so as I said you have to keep his secret and it's hard to keep. It's the type of thing that is so big you just wish you could tell somebody, anybody but you can't. The good thing is that you'll have me and Clark to talk to about it if need be. That bad thing is that there are certainly enough people who want to know that once they realize you know they will badger you endlessly about it. At the top of that list are Lex, Chloe and Lionel."

Lana nodded again trying to take all of this in. It sounded so fantastical already and she hadn't even been told what the secret was. It was obvious already though that she was going to have to put a lot on her shoulders if she decided to take this on. Lana gestured for Pete to continue and he did.

"Ok second thing. This has to be done somewhere private. It's not exactly the type of thing that can be done in the middle of the Talon in mid day when there are people all over. So you're going to want to decide on a place where there are no people around and that you are going to feel safe and secure. I'm not going to lie to you Lana. This stuff is almost certainly going to freak you the hell out. I was spooked when I found out and it takes some getting used to. I was his best friend at the time and I nearly ran for the hills when I first figured it all out. All I can say is keep an open mind and whatever you do make sure you remember the years that you have known Clark. Remember all the things he has done for you. He's the same person now as he was back then and he will be the same person after he's told you. Nothing could hurt him more then having you turn your back on him after he tells you. I'll come along wherever you guys decide to do this and will be there for you if you need me. Just try and be considerate of Clark. This is a huge thing for him to tell you." With those final words Pete finished his coffee and leaned back into his seat to wait for Lana to take all this in.

Lana sat on the other side of the table staring blankly at Pete for several minutes while thoughts whirled through her mind about what this all meant. She could tell that at the very least Pete believed every word he was saying and she knew that Clark cared for her a great deal. The question was what was all this about. What could possibly be so big, so important that Clark would have to hide it from the world and that could put Pete in mortal danger not once on two separate occasions.

Did she want to put herself in that position? Thinking back now she could see that Clark would always be there for her. He had saved her on more occasions then she could remember and there were a few times that she suspected he had saved her. He was always there for her when she needed him. Even if it did put her in danger it would allow them to have a relationship hopefully and he would never let anything happen to her anyways so what was the difference. She was in danger now as it was. God knows enough things happened to her anyways. Knowing his secret wasn't going to change that much.

Snapping out of her thoughts she looked Pete in the eye and smiled brightly. "Alright Pete I'm in. I want to take this chance. I want to know what Clark finds so important that he has to hide it from me and the rest of the world. I think I would prefer to do it here though. Let's meet here after I close next Thursday night. That gives me some time to make arrangements to get everybody out of here and make sure I'm ready for this. With that said do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?"

Pete nodded and gestured for her to go ahead. "You know what his secret is already Pete. Do you think it's worth knowing? Is it something bad, something that's going to change my opinion of him?" Pete looked thoughtful for a moment. Probably trying to figure out how to answer without revealing too much Lana realized. She suddenly realized now that she looked back that there were all sorts of occasions where Pete had covered for Clark when strange things happened. Now that she knew he knew what his secret was it all made sense. A moment later he looked back at her and smiled.

"Lana as I said I've known Clarks secret for quite some time now and what I can tell you is that despite all the pain and trouble that it has caused me I would never choose to give that information back if I had the chance. It was worth knowing because it let me see the real Clark. I don't mean to say that he is a different person because he's not but it did allow me to see just how much Clark has to deal with on a daily basis and how hard his life truly is. It gave me a new respect for him and I know that regardless of the problems that his secret causes for me that Clark will always be there to bail me out."

"It really allowed me to talk freely with him too, which is important to me. I see how important it is to him to know that he can sit and talk with me about anything. It takes a lot off his shoulders and it has really strengthened our friendship. With that said, yes it will very likely change your opinion of him. In fact I can almost guarantee it will, but it's not something bad. It's not like he's going to tell you that he's some mass murder or a fugitive from the law or something. It's not that type of secret. It changed my life when I found out and I can safely say it changed his as well. He feels a lot more relaxed around me now and I think that once you know, your relationship with him will take off. You know Lana Clark only found out about this at the start of high school. It changed the way he lived his very life. I can only say that when you finally understand what it is you will find yourself thinking back on your life and all the so called problems you had only to discover just how trivial they were in comparison to the problems he lives with on a daily basis."

Lana nodded thoughtfully before responding. She knew this was the right decision. She could just feel it. She felt jealous of the relationship that Clark and Pete held and she wanted to be that close to Clark as well. In fact she wanted to be closure. She wanted to be the person that Clark could come to about anything and if this was the cost of that relationship then so be it. Setting her shoulders in a determined stance she spoke strongly to Pete.

"Alright Pete I want to talk to Clark. Why don't you two meet me here at the same time next Thursday night? I'll be done clearing by then and we can talk up stairs in my apartment. I'll prepare us something to eat and we can have a light meal while we talk or something. You know I envy you Pete. You've had the type of relationship with Clark for a long time now that I have always wanted. I hope that after Thursday night I'll be able to get that and more from him."

Pete laughed lightly and smiled again to Lana before standing up and heading for the door. "Thanks for the coffee and muffin Lana and trust me. When this is all over I'm sure you'll have your chance at that relationship. I know for a fact that Clark wants it. You're the first person that he has willingly told about this. Even I just stumbled across his secret by chance. He must really care for you to take such a chance." And with that he left the store leaving Lana behind with her thoughts.

* * *

"Alright Jack, go ahead. What's your status?" said General George Hammond from his position in the control room of Stargate Command. On the screen in front of him was the image of Jack O'Neal standing in front of the M.A.L.P. for his second daily check in. It was Monday morning now and George was expecting an update on their research into the mysterious new race they had discovered in the secure sub level of the Ancient complex.

"Well general we are still pouring through the records here to try and figure out what else we can find. We found reference to research that the Ancients did on the power device that was located in the Kryptonian structure and Daniel thinks that they may have been trying to figure out a way to duplicate the device. We are going to look into it more today. Daniel seems to think that we should bring the stasis chamber and the ship back with us to the SGC and study it further. If he can find a way to learn their language he might be able to communicate with the women in the chamber. Of course doing so would likely kill her but we might be able to learn a fair bit from her if we took that route. Daniel says that stasis chamber is keeping her alive right now but that we won't be able to put her back in there again until after she kicks the bucket if we bring her out."

"Alright Jack I understand. You have permission to bring both objects back for study. What about the information from the computers. Were you able to back up the research materials?" replied George.

"Yes sir we were able to back up the research material as well as the entire Kryptonian database that the Ancients were able to copy from the structures computer systems. Of course we can't read or understand any of that but at least we have the Ancient information. Daniel was able to find information in the computer system here that showed the areas of interest within the compound. There doesn't seem to be much else of use sir but I would still suggest sending another research team to spend a few weeks looking over the structures and the complex. They may find something else that we over looked." Responded Jack.

George nodded to himself again and then responded to Jack. "Alright Jack you have your orders. We'll expect your return in 24 hours or a check in to request more time. Good luck Jack. Hammond out." And with those words the gate disconnected leaving George standing in the control room staring at the inactive ring.


	2. Clarks Secret Revealed

**Author Notes:**

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: At the time of this posting the first chapter has been edited to some extent. While the changes are not huge they are enough that I would suggest at least skimming through the first chapter a bit. Several things were changed, others removed and nearly 1000 words were added to it.**

**WARNING: this chapter contains a somewhat graphic fight scene at the end. I believe this still falls under the rating of "T" for teen but I may have to increase it to "M" for Mature soon. You have been warned.**

Chapter one came out fairly well in my opinion although I was hoping for a little better response on the reviews. I guess this type of story is not quite as popular as others. Even still I am excited about this story and I look forward to hearing from you all after you read this chapter. Chapter two continues with SG1 looking into the Kryptonian in the Ancient complex. Clark Kent will spill the beans to Lana Lang in this chapter and their relationship will slowly begin to develop. By the end of this chapter I intend for SG1 to have a run in with Clark and several other members of the Smallville crew. So read on and be sure to _**READ & REVIEW. **_

* * *

**Stargate SG1 – The Last Kryptonian**

Chapter Two: Clarks Secret Revealed

By Cybergades

* * *

Deep in outer space three seemingly derelict ships sprang to life upon receiving a long range signal from their leader. The signal had traveled thousands of light years from a tiny blue planet circling a large yellow sun. The message told of the rise of their lord and master General Zod while calling them to battle once more in his name. 

They were ordered to come to the planet Earth and destroy the last surviving member of the House of El before joining their leader to conquering the feeble planet. These ships represented the last of the once mighty Brien, a race of animal like warriors whose strength was equal to that of the Kryptonians. In the days of Zod they were his enforcers. The ones he called on to crush his foes. They were the one race that could stand up to the might of the Kryptonians and possibly come out on top. Even so they picked the wrong side. They followed their leader fearlessly and without question. They thought him a god and they followed him to their end. Near the end of the war when Zod had finally been vanquished the last remaining remnants of the Brien attempted to flee but they were not quick enough.

The Kryptonians exterminated them one by one until their entire race was gone. Or so they thought. It was true that they crushed their race but these three ships escaped that fate and aboard those ships slept the last surviving members of the Brien. They had fled the Kryptonian Empire and saved themselves by floating lifelessly in outer space as they waited for the return of the man they considered a god.

And so it was that three faithful servants of General Zod were awoken from their long sleep and departed to aid their lord from there respective locations, the first of which would reach its destination within the day. Little did they know that their beloved ruler was long since dead at the hands of the very man they were ordered to destroy.

* * *

Jack stood up from his position in front of the M.A.L.P. camera and walked back into the compound. It was not exactly a short walk. The compound was huge and getting from the front entrance to the lab was roughly a 20 minute walk. Finally he came upon the security station that allowed access to the underground lab and proceeded to beam into the secure research lab to join Daniel. 

This had been where the two of them had spent most of their time over the past 2 days. Sam and Teal'c had finished their research of the Kryptonian structure and had begun looking around to see if they could find a way into any of the other rooms or either of the other two structures. So far they had not had much luck. Jack and Daniel had stayed in the lab researching everything they could about the Kryptonian and her race as well as looking into the references to the power generation device that they had discovered within the main Kryptonian structure. Now nearly 2 days after finding the lab they had learned all they felt they would be able to in the time they had and had been able to back up all the data including logs and research material into several Asgard storage devices.

Daniel turned around from the station when he heard Jack beam into the lab. "Jack I'm glad your back. You will never believe what I found. I was looking into the research that the Ancients did on the power generation device we discovered in the Kryptonian base out back when I found these records. According to this the Ancients were able to adept the technology to their own needs and create what they considered to be an Accelerated ZPM. They had nearly three times the power of a normal ZPM they had created nearly a dozen of them in this facility before they were forced to abandon it."

"I looked into the records farther and I found the storage compartment where they had them stored and look what I found." Said Daniel excitedly as he moved to the side. There standing behind the console were 5 Accelerated Zero Point Modules. Each one roughly the same size of the originals but made out of a different material.

Jack's mouth dropped open as he took in the appearance of the 5 softly glowing items sitting on the floor of the lab before turning to Daniel with a wicked grin on his face. "Please tell me those babies are fully charged." Replied Jack in an urgent voice. Daniel smiled widely and nodded. "The readings show they have only had the standard tests run on them but for all intents and purposes they are fully charged. But that's not the only thing I found. You see I was checking out what tests they ran on them and I found out that the final test they run on each one is to have them run the defense chair within the complex and have it fire off a round of drones which they consider to be relatively high on the power drain." Said Daniel

Jack stared blankly at Daniel not sure what this had to do with anything or how this was considered to be interesting at all. So what if they tested them by firing off drones. What the hell did he care how the tested them as long as they worked. Daniel seemed to understand that he needed more clarification because he walked over to the console and started punching keys rapidly. A moment later Jack was looking at what appeared to be the defense statistics of the facility they were in. He continued to stare blankly for a few minutes until one of the many stats on the screen caught his eye and they both went wide in surprise. There listed clear as day on the screen was the current count on the facilities compliment of attack drones.

Jack's looked back and forth between the screen which was now flashing the number in question and the huge grin on Daniel's face before opening his mouth to comment. "Are you serious Daniel? You're telling me this outpost, this RESEARCH outpost has nearly a hundred thousand attack drones stored in a storage bay" questioned Jack not quite believing it. Daniel nodded vigorously before turning towards the screen.

"I checked and double checked it over and over again Jack. According to the data on this facility they were responsible for not only researching the Kryptonians but as their war effort got more and more serious with the Wraith they began manufacturing the attack drones here as well. The thing is the war took a sudden turn for the worse and they were forced to retreat only taking a portion of what they had created. That's why out of the dozen or so AZPM they created there are still 5 left. Well it's the same with the drones. The ship they left on didn't have the storage capacity to take them all. So they left nearly a hundred thousand rounds behind. Now the equipment to make more has been destroyed. It was on the first floor and as you know almost that entire level was leveled but the storage bay itself is fine, it was shielded just like this one and the security room. I just over looked it before because I didn't know there was anything within It." stated Daniel

Jack stared at the screen for a few more minutes before laughing loudly and smacking Daniel on the back. "Way to Go Danny boy. Wait until the General hears about this. This is like winning the lottery only way better. In 2 days we have found an advanced alien race. One of their ships, 5 hyped up ZPM devices and nearly a hundred thousand attack drones. This is bloody unbelievable." Jack continued to laugh and Daniel just rolled his eyes at the nick name. Sometimes Jack could really be annoying.

"Well Daniel I'd say this mission is a success. Is there anything else that you want to look at here or are you finished?" asked Jack after he had gotten himself under control. Daniel looked thoughtful for a moment before replying. "Well I would like to study the actual recordings for some of the tests they did on the Kryptonian. The records mentioned that she had a positive reaction to the radiation from a yellow sun when they were trying to find a way to heal her. They said that it slowed the decay but that doesn't make sense. I'm wondering how exactly it slowed the decay. Did it counteract the radiation from the organism within her blood stream or does it do something else."

"Other then that I don't need anything else. We'll need some help with transporting all this stuff though. Somebody should head back to the SGC and contact the Asgard to see if we can get them to send a battleship out here for transportation." Replied Daniel. Jack nodded thoughtfully before reaching for his radio. "Carter this is O'Neill, come in".

"Carter here, Go ahead sir." came the soft voice of Sam. "Carter I'm heading to the gate. Meet me there and have Teal'c stand watch outside the security room here in the Ancient complex." Said Jack. "Yes sir. We're on our way." and with that the line went dead. Jack turned to Daniel to make sure he was ok before heading off. "I'm heading back to the SGC with Carter. Teal'c will keep watch up above. We'll be back as soon as we can. Try and figure out how we get everything out of this bay." Stated Jack a moment before the transport beam activated and he found himself back in the security room. Without any further delays he started towards the gate.

* * *

Walter sat at the computer station inside the control room at the SGC like he did everyday. They weren't expecting anybody to call in or come back for another 12 hours or so, so he was resting back in his chair running various diagnostics on the computer systems and the gate for the remainder of his shift. Suddenly the gate spun to life and the alarm went off. 

"Unscheduled off world activation." Shouted Walter as he closed the iris over the gate. A moment later General Hammond rushed into the control room. "What do we have Walter?" asked George. Just as Walter was about to respond an IDC came over the system. "It's SG1 sir." Responded Walter as he prepared to open the iris. "Open the iris." Commanded George and then he headed down to the gate room. A few moments later Jack and Sam exited the gate and walked down the catwalk towards the exit where George stepped into the room.

"What seems to be the problem Colonel? And where's the rest of your team?" Jack answered the general's questions and requested a debriefing which was immediately granted. Five minutes later the three of them were sitting in the briefing room with Jack reviewing what they had found out and their need for Thor's assistance.

"So you see sir if we can get our good buddy Thor to make a quick detour to our friendly neighborhood Ancient research complex then we should be able to ship a whole crap load of attack drones, a frozen alien and her space ship, along with five super powerful ZPM devices back here to the SGC." Finished Jack. George nodded thoughtfully as he reviewed the information he had been provided.

"Very well you have a go Jack. Contact Thor and request his assistance. I'll inform the president of the situation. Your dismissed." Before he could leave however Jack spoke again. "Sir I think you should stress the point that the NID should not be involved in this case. This woman is a warrior. Her sole duty by the looks of it was to fight and win. Her powers are incredible if their database is to be believed and I don't think she would take kindly to being interrogated or dealing with people of the NID standards."

George nodded in agreement and they went about their business separately. "Alright Carter I'm heading down to the control room to contact Thor. We have two hours before we gate out of here again so get cleaned up, grab some grub and meet back here in ninety minutes." Sam nodded in understanding, said the typical 'yes sir' and took off to do just that while Jack turned for the stairs.

A moment later he walked up beside Walter. "Alright Walter send an urgent message to Thor and tell him SG1 needs his assistance. Let him know we require an immediate response." After making sure the message was received Jack left instructions to be notified when Thor responded and he left to clean up and get some grub.

* * *

A little over an hour later Jack and Sam were finishing up their lunches having both showered and packed up anything they might need for their re-deployment when the call came in from the control room. Jack looked across at Sam and the two of them dropped their food and bolted for the control room. 

"Hey Thor buddy, pal, how are you doing little feller." Joked Jack as he entered the control room to see Thor displayed on the video screen. "I am doing well O'Neil. How may I be of assistance?" Jack smiled brightly and proceeded to fill him in on their current situation and their needs. Ten minutes later he wrapped up with his explanation and waited for Thor's response.

"Very well O'Neil I shall meet you at the coordinates you provided. It shall take approximately 7 earth hours to reach the planet." Responded Thor. They said their good byes and the gate shut down. "Well Carter looks like we're heading back to wonderland. Grab your gear we leave in thirty minutes."

* * *

It was just after nine PM on Monday night when a the first Brien ship entered into its final approach of the planet known as earth and approached the small town which his leader had directed him too. On the ground in a secure military facility beneath Cheyenne Mountain the radar officer on duty failed to notice the faint radar hit of the partially cloaked Brien vessel entering the earth's atmosphere. It would be nearly a week later before the remaining two ships reached earth and by which time the first Brien soldier would have already discovered the fate of their so called god.

* * *

SG1 had been waiting patiently for the arrival of Thor for the past 7 hours or so when they spotted the large form of the Asgard battleship O'Neill descending through the clouds. Daniel for his part was Anxious to get on board and beam up their cargo so that he could test out a theory he had. He had reviewed the recorded logs that were available for the tests the Ancients had run on the Kryptonian with the various types of radiation. He was extremely surprised to see that they overlooked the results. 

Of course they had other concerns at the time and the facility didn't have the capability to flush the blood stream to begin with but even still they hadn't noticed that the radiation from the Yellow sun and to a lesser extent that of the blue sun had actually been healing the cells. Not fast enough that it would save her while she was still being affected by the radiation from the organisms within her but it was healing her.

He was convinced that if they could get her out of the stasis chamber and into an Asgard medical pod that they would be able to remove the contaminant from within her blood stream. At which point exposing her to the solar radiation from a yellow sun would likely heal her. In other words by just being on earth she could be saved. He had to assume that by doing so they would have a good possibility at recruiting her as an ally. Daniel had told the rest of SG1 about his discovery and they all seemed to be just as interested as him in what the possibilities were of saving the once doomed Kryptonian pilot.

A few minutes later found SG1 beamed aboard the bridge of the O'Neill and being welcomed by Thor. Things proceeded quickly and within the hour they had transported all their cargo aboard and were lifting off to return to earth, which from their current location would take less then three hours.

Teal'c and Jack had left to inspect the drones and ship leaving Sam, Daniel and Thor on the bridge. Daniel took a step forward and cleared his throat before speaking. "Excuse me Thor but I was wondering if I could ask you a question." Inquired Daniel. Thor nodded his head. "Certainly Daniel Jackson. What can I do for you?" asked Thor.

"We found a young women in stasis as you know while we were on the planet and I was wondering if your medical bays might be able to help her. The scans I ran showed that her blood stream is saturated with a biological organism which emits a low level of radiation that is slowly killing her. I also found that the Ancients ran tests on her which showed that the solar radiation from a yellow sun had strong healing properties. Not strong enough to heal her while she was still being affected by the organisms but if we could remove them from her blood stream I am convinced that with time she could make a recovery on earth. Do you think your medical bays would be capable of removing such an organism?" asked Daniel with a hopeful air to him.

Thor looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding his head. "Yes Daniel Jackson. It would be a simple matter for our medical bays to take care of." Replied Thor. Before Daniel could reply Thor turned around to the control panel on the bridge and transported the Kryptonian women into the medical bay and into one of the pods. A moment later he turned back to Daniel and informed him that his charge had been transferred into a Medical pod and that the procedure had begun.

"The procedure will take roughly four hours Daniel Jackson. I will stay in orbit of earth until the procedure is completed at which point I will transport her down to your SGC before I leave." Stated Thor in a very boring tone of voice. Daniel nodded in understanding before turning to speak with Sam. With a little luck the procedure would go off without a hitch and their Kryptonian patient would be on the road to recovery.

The rest of the trip passed quickly with the members of SG1 all doing their own things and Thor sitting patiently like he always did.

* * *

Clark awoke to find himself lying on the couch in the loft of his barn during the night. Looking out the window of the loft he could tell that it was still late out judging by the night sky. Looking over at his watch which rested on his desk across the room he noticed that it was a little after two in the morning. 

Clark wasn't sure what had caused him to wake but now that he was he found himself with a very uneasy feeling coursing through his body. All his senses were on alert and he seemed to instinctively know that something was wrong. Looking around quickly with his x-ray vision he didn't find anything that caught his attention and figured that he was just edgy because of his upcoming meeting with Lana the following week. He decided that he would go out for a walk to burn off some of his excess energy and work out his nerves.

Throwing on his shirt and shoes he exited the barn and headed through the fields towards the water tower that he always visited when he wanted to think and relax. Not really being in a hurry Clark decided to just run at normal speed to get a bit of a workout. He was hoping that the workout would make him tired in which case he could get back to bed when he got back and get some sleep.

Less then twenty minutes later found Clark sitting at the top of his favorite look out and looking up at the stars in the night sky. Slowly Clark lost himself in his thoughts about the future and what it would bring for him and Lana. So lost in his thoughts was he that he didn't even notice the tall bulky creature moving quickly towards the tower until it was to late.

Clark was startled out of his thoughts as the tower gave a mighty lurch and started to crash towards the ground. Thinking fast Clark switched into super speed and jumped off the ledge of the tower, landing quickly and rushing to catch the tower before dropping back out of super speed and catching the giant tower which was full of water. Clark was about to replace the tower and repair the broken support that he could see with his heat vision when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes.

Clark barely had enough time to blink before a hand slammed into his chest sending him flying back several hundred feet and skidding along the ground. He was slowly getting to his feet and trying to figure out what was going on when he was caught in the side of the head by a powerful kick sending him flying again.

This time Clark jumped into super speed the moment he hit the ground and managed to right himself quickly. Even in super speed he could see that his opponent was nearly as fast as he was. This time Clark was able to see his attacker rushing forward and prepared himself to retaliate. A moment later both Clark and the Brien warrior threw powerful punches resulting in both opponents soaring through the air in the opposite direction.

As Clark pulled himself off the ground yet again he was for the first time during the fight able to get a clear look at his opponent and try to judge the situation. The creature that stood across the field from him was roughly 6 foot 3 inches in height and looked to weigh about three hundred pounds. He was obviously very strong judging by the hits he had delivered and the hit he had taken. Clark could feel the bruises on his body forming which was extremely unusual for him.

His opponent's arms were nearly twice the size of Clark's and a pair of lethal looking claws adorned the beast's hands. It was like nothing that Clark had ever seen and after doing a brief scan with his X-ray vision he knew for a fact that it wasn't a mutant freak. This was an alien of some sort. He was sure of it and for whatever reason it wanted him dead. Looking forward again Clark saw the beast charge forward at incredible speeds and Clark knew the battle had begun again in earnest. Figuring that he would change tactics a bit Clark jumped into super speed using his slightly faster speed to keep his distance and blasted the creature with repeated volleys of heat vision only to be totally surprised when they were absorbed by what looked like some type of glowing armor that surrounded his body.

A moment later he tried his newest power unleashing a blast of super cooled air in an attempt to freeze his opponent. Once again the armor seemed to shake off the brunt of the attack only causing him to shoot back across the ground before slamming into the downed water tower. Clark was getting sick of this. He knew he didn't have all day to fight this thing. Eventually somebody would realize the tower was down and come check it out. He had to be finished with the fight and gone before that happened.

Deciding to go with the tried and true Clark rush forward as the creature pulled itself out of the hole it had made in the water tower and was caught completely unawares by Clark as he brought both his arms slamming down on it's shoulders driving it to the ground before jumping on top of it and beginning to continuously slam his fists into its chest and face. Clark watched in satisfaction as his attacked destroyed the tough armor surrounding the beast's upper body before it was able to throw him off.

Clark landed on his feet just as the alien creature jumped to its feet and charged angrily towards him. Clark quickly jumped back to create some more distance between them before firing a powerful blast of heat vision into the now exposed chest of the alien. The alien screamed in pain creating a horrible sound which rocketed through the country side in a way that Clark was sure would wake up most of the households in the area. A moment later the creature dropped to its knees and glared Clark in defiance before speaking.

"You shall not win Kryptonian. You may have defeated me but my eternal ruler Zod shall rise up and strike you down with his might and together with my brethren he shall rule over your pitiful planet. LONG LIVE THE BRIEN" Chocked out the alien before falling forward dead. Clark stared in surprise at the creature which now lay bleeding on the ground. He was sure that it had mentioned the name Zod. But Zod was dead. Clark didn't have a clue what this thing was talking about.

Deciding that he could think on this another time when he didn't have to worry about the sheriff showing up and asking lots of interesting questions Clark ran forward and picked up the now dead alien before vaporizing the blood soaked soil beneath him so that the sheriff would not find anything. Once he was finished he shifted into super speed and a moment later arrived at the caves.

Putting the key into the cave wall and transporting to his Fortress of Solitude Clark approached the platform from which he would address his father. "Jor'El. What is going on? Why was I attacked by this creature? Why did he serve Zod? Who or what are the Brien" bellowed Clark as he stood in the middle of the fortress.

A moment later the voice of his father boomed through the fortress. "Kal'El my son. You are in grave danger as are the people of this planet. The creature in front of you is a part of a warrior race called the Brien. Their power is second only to that of Krypton and their technology rivals even ours. Their warriors wear powerful armor which absorbs all forms of attacked reducing the damage they receive. It acts as almost a second skin to them, making their already tough skin nearly invincible. As you have no doubt noticed my son it is not an easy task to disable this armor."

"Their race was once loyal subjects of Zod and his most powerful allies. It was with their support that he was able to get as far as he did. I had thought them all destroyed but I see now that this was not the case. Be careful my son. If one survived there may have be more. You will know my son if more arrive. Kryptonians of your generation were given the ability to sense them during the war. You may not know where they are but you will be aware of them. You must destroy them before they can cause harm to the people of this planet. Be safe my son." Finished Jor'El. Clark nodded in understanding before placing the dead alien on the platform to dispose of the body. A moment later he was back in the caves in Smallville and headed back to the farm.

The bruises that had marred his body were already nearly gone by the time he returned home and the sun would be rising over the horizon within the hour. Clark decided that it was too late to get any sleep now so he decided to take a shower and begin his chores, all the while his mind going over what his father had said and the memory of the fight. He did not want to have to fight another one of those things but he knew that it was a possibility. If more came he would stop them. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts Clark stepped into the shower.

* * *

Far from earth in the vastness of space two Brien pilots watched as the signal from their brethren disappeared signaling his death. Immediately the two pilots changed their plan of attack and the Brien fighter closest to earth reduced its speed to ensure they arrived together. Together they would kill the last surviving member of the House of El and then they would be heroes in the eyes of their god.

* * *

The next week and a half went by pretty quickly for Clark. He got up, went thought his morning routine before heading into school. When he returned home for the day he would quickly do his chores and then head out to hang out with Chloe and Pete before returning home for the night and going to bed. 

All the while his mind was constantly thinking of the threat that he was sure was coming. Like his father had said, he did not know where they were but he could swear that he could feel them coming closer. He was constantly on alert and wondering when he was going to have to face another one of those Brien creatures. As the days went by he began to become more and more hopeful that he was simply imagining things. Deep down he knew this was just wishful thinking and that eventually the other shoe would drop but for the time being he had convinced himself that it was over.

* * *

The week and a half after returning to earth the SGC had been a flurry of activity. Carter had been examining the new AZPM devices; Daniel had been working closely with Dr. Fraiser trying to ensure the recovery of the Kryptonian women they had found on their last mission. Meanwhile Jack and Teal'c were working closely with General Hammond to see to the restocking of the earth defense chair and seeing to it that The Daedalus was equipped with a new AZPM along with a full cargo of drones to deliver to Atlantis right away. 

Thursday morning arrived bright and sunny. It was now the middle of June and Daniel suspected that their guest would awake by the end of July if things kept up the way they were going now. At the time Daniel did not realize that for a Kryptonian this was a very long time for recovery and he simply felt that things were progressing quickly. What he didn't know was that the long exposure to the harmful radiation had drastically reduced her ability to heal herself and as a result her body was taking much longer to repair itself. It would be many months before her body was fully healed and her powers returned to normal.

It was on this wonderful Thursday morning that Sam found herself sitting in her lab going over her e-mail of which she hadn't checked in nearly two weeks. While reviewing her mail she came across a message from an old friend of hers from her academy days who was currently working at a deep space observatory in Houston. Opening the e-mail with a smile on her face she quickly read through it.

_Hey Sam_

_I hope this message finds you well and that you're enjoying your job at the US department of Deep Space Telemetry. I thought you might find this interesting. I'm not sure what it is and I wasn't sure if you caught it. I thought it might have been a satellite of some sort. I tracked it from orbit as it fell towards North America last Monday evening and when I called it in I was just brushed off so I figured I would drop you an e-mail and see what you thought._

_Get back to me if you find anything out. Well have a great day and I hope to hear from you soon._

_Your friend,_

_James_

Sam read over the message a second time before frowning. She hadn't heard anything about an object falling from orbit and the image wasn't very clear. If anybody should have known what it was it should have been them. It was after all a part of the mission of the SGC.

Getting up from her desk Sam made her way towards the control room to check with the radar operator about the logs from last Monday. Upon arriving she found General Hammond standing watch over the gate room as SG8 embarked on a mission. Once they were through the gate she informed General Hammond about the message she had received from her friend and asked if they had picked anything up.

The General was equally confused about the lack of warning as they should have been alerted had anything approached earth let alone fell into the atmosphere. Walking over to the radar station Sam spoke to the sergeant that was working the station.

"Sergeant pull up the records from Last Monday evening through Tuesday morning and tell me if we picked up an objects entering orbit over North America." Requested Sam. A moment later the sergeant had pulled up the records and was displaying them on screen. The trio watched as at roughly 10PM on Monday evening a space craft of unknown origin entered the atmosphere under a faulty cloak and approached the town of Smallville Kansas.

"Sir who knows what could have happened down there. Why weren't we notified about this? That ship was obviously under its own power and it has been over a week since it landed. It may be impossible to contain this." Inquired Sam as she looked at the screen in shock. George looked at the screen once more before issuing his orders. "Major Carter, get the rest of your team together and be in the briefing room in twenty minutes. Dismissed." And with that Sam ran from the room to find her team mates.

Twenty minutes later the team entered the briefing room and took their places. General Hammond looked over SG1 for a moment before beginning the briefing. "On Monday evening of last week at roughly 10PM an alien craft of a type that we have never encountered before entered earths atmosphere and landed in a field three miles outside of Smallville Kansas. At the time the ship was overlooked by our radar officer and the system failed to report the incident. Nothing is known about the ship or its contents at this time. Your mission is to go to Smallville with SG3 and SG11 as backup, secure the ship and its cargo. Investigate the surrounding areas and determine if one or more alien's were onboard the craft. In the event that you encounter an alien entity you are to capture the creature and return it and its ship to the SGC. Pack your gear. You leave in an hour. There will be a military jet waiting for you when you reach the airport. Good luck SG1." Finished George before getting up and taking his leave. A moment later SG1 followed suit.

By the time SG1, SG3, and SG11 made it to the airfield in Metropolis it was already a little after 8PM. Upon arriving at the base they were escorted to the SUV's which had been arranged for them and headed towards Smallville.

* * *

It was just after ten PM on Thursday night and Pete was watching Clark go through a positively spectacular mental breakdown. If it wasn't such a crucial moment in Clark's life Pete probably would have thought it was hilarious but at this exact moment it was the worst thing that could possibly be happening. 

"Damn Pete what did I do this for. I can not believe I agreed to tell her my secret. I just know she's going to freak out and run for it. I have completely screwed my self. What kind of a moron am I?" ranted Clark. "What if she doesn't believe me? What if she thinks I'm just some delusional psychopath and she goes and tells everybody what I said and then takes off to Paris? Why did I do this to myself? I should have just let her leave." Screamed Clark in frustration.

Pete shook his head and figured it was time to step in and stop this before it got any worse. "Clark, CLARK. Damn man, shut up and relax. You're freaking yourself out more then you have to. I'm telling you I talked with Lana Saturday and she is fine with this. She is not going to run away, she is not going to think your lying to her, at least not after you show her a demonstration. But most importantly she is NOT GOING TO THINK YOUR SOME TYPE OF FREAK OR PHYSOPATH. You just need to relax, take some deep breaths and cool down. We got about forty minutes to get to the talon which means you got about twenty minutes to get your shit together. This is what you have been waiting for Clark. I am telling you now that if you don't tell her today you will loose her forever. Especially after I told her you were coming to tell her everything. You need to tell her and then start your life with her man. Now come on, relax and lets just go over the plan once more." Said Pete in a strong tone.

Clark looked over at Pete for a few moments before nodding in agreement and understanding. "Your right Pete. I can do this. I beat meteor freaks on an almost weekly basis; I've saved peoples lives dozens of times. I can do this. Really how hard could it be? It can't be anything like the stuff I've had to do in the past. Thanks Pete. Ok lets go over this from the top." And with that Pete and Clark discussed their plans for the remainder of the night.

Twenty minutes later found the duo in Pete's muscle car driving down the road towards Smallville and the Talon. The drive there took about fifteen minutes and was peaceful in general. The duo chatted back and forth about everyday stuff to try and keep their minds off of what was likely to be a very interesting and intense meeting with the lovely Lana Lang.

A few minutes before eleven they pulled up in front of the Talon to find the shop closed but the doors unlooked and the lights still on. The climbed out of the car and Clark followed behind Pete as they entered the shop. Upon entering they found the place deserted but clean and a note waiting for them just inside the doors.

_Hey Guys_

_I finished up early tonight so I figured I would leave this note for you while I head upstairs to make something to eat for the three of us. Lock up when you come in and then come on up stairs. The apartment's unlocked and you can just walk in._

_Lana_

Pete read the letter quickly before handing it to Clark and walking back to the front door to look it up. A moment later Pete rejoined Clark just as he finished reading the note and the pair of them headed for the stairs with Clark following behind nervously again. Pete couldn't help but find it humorous. Put Clark Kent within a hundred feet of Lana Lang and he became the shy farm boy that first started Smallville High. Anywhere else and he was the confident, fearless, super powered hero that saved the day. It really was funny.

Pete reached the apartment at the top of the stairs and knocked lightly to announce their presence before entering. He entered the cozy one bedroom apartment to the welcoming smile of Lana who was in the kitchen across the room finishing up with whatever she was cooking and smiling brightly at the two of them.

"Hey guys I guess you got my note. Come on in and grab a seat. I'm just finishing up some spaghetti. I haven't eaten since lunch so I'm starving." Called Lana as she picked up the pot of spaghetti and headed towards the table. Clark and Pete rushed into the Kitchen to help bring out the sauce and the dishes. A moment later they were all sitting down around the small table to enjoy a late dinner of sorts.

Clark could feel himself sweating as he ate the remainder of his food and watched as Lana snuck glances in his direction as if expecting him to start talking. A few minutes later he finished up with dinner and Lana and Pete followed suit a few minutes after that. When everybody was done eating he picked up everybody's dishes and headed for the kitchen to put them in the sink before heading back to the table.

"Why don't we sit in your living room Lana? This will probably take a little time." said Clark and both Pete and Lana agreed. They moved slowly towards the living room which was just across the room and took their seats in the chairs and couches that were scattered throughout. Clark began to wring his hands nervously as he looked from Lana to Pete and back to Lana again. He couldn't believe that something so simple could scare him so much. He had faced dozens of meteor freaks, dozens of life or death situations and he was never afraid like he was now. It really hacked him off.

Clark was startled from his thoughts by Lana's calm and loving voice and her warm hand resting on top of his. "Clark… just take your time. Nothing you could tell me would change my feelings for you. I'm not going anywhere. Just take your time and be honest with me. I swear that I will take your secret to my grave." Lana gave his hand a gentle squeeze and then rested her hand on his knee.

Clark nodded his head in agreement before taking a deep shaky breath and releasing his hands from each other. He changed positions slightly so that he was looking into Lana's eyes and then took another deep calming breath before he began.

"Lana I'm not even sure where to begin. It's so much harder to tell somebody that doesn't know then it is to tell somebody that has seen it for themselves. But I want you to know. I want you to know my secret because I want a chance to have a life with you. I don't want to loose your love and possibly your friendship over a secret. I promise that I will do everything I can to protect you from the dangers that come along with knowing."

"The simplest answer to what my secret is Lana, is I'm not from around here. I'm not like you, or Chloe, or Lex, or Pete, or anyone for that matter. I look like you, I act like you, but I am not like you. I can do things that other people can't." stated Clark with fear in his eyes. Lana looked at him curiously before commenting on his words. "Are you saying your like one of those meteor freaks that we've seen in Smallville, like the ones that you and Pete always end up stopping? But you just said your not from around here so how did that happen?" asked Lana.

Clark shook his head and turned towards Pete for support. Pete nodded his head in a gesture to continue and Clark sighed deeply before looking back into Lana's eyes. "No Lana I'm not a meteor freak, you've asked me that before and I was telling you the truth when I said I wasn't."

"Lana do you remember after the second meteor shower you came to visit me in my loft and you asked me if I believed in life on other planets?" asked Clark while looking straight at Lana at watching as slowly understanding started to seep into her eyes. When she nodded her head in understanding and a gesture to continue Clark sighed heavily again before continuing. "When you asked me that question you have no idea how ironic I found that question. That day you had seen a space ship crash land in Smallville and two people emerged from it. You watched as they killed dozens of officers and destroyed a wide array of vehicles. That night when you came to me and you asked me that question I was beyond scared. You had no idea just how close you were to my secret that day. When I say I'm not from around here I don't mean it in the sense of I'm not from this city, or this state. I mean I'm… I mean… Um… well you see the thing is… it's like this you see… Pete a little help here buddy." Said Clark as he began to flounder.

Before Pete could speak Lana grabbed one of Clark's hands and squeezed it tightly. "It's ok Clark. You can tell me. Just spit it out. I don't care where you're from. I have friends from all over the world. Where you were born won't make a difference. Your confusing me, I don't understand why any of this is dangerous and it doesn't seem like a big secret." Said Lana while squeezing his hand again for support.

Clark sighed deeply. There was no way around it. He would have to say the words. She was going to think he was a whack job. There was no way around it. "Lana I'm not from this city, or state or even this world. When I say I'm not like you I mean it. I may look and feel a lot like you and Pete but I'm not. I can do things that a human couldn't do in their wildest dreams." Clark dropped her hand and looked to the ground and Lana stood up and looked at him in shook for a few minutes before a furious look formed on her face.

"Clark who the hell do you think you are. I thought you were going to be honest with me tonight but instead you try to feed me some crap about being an alien from another world. Come on who do you think your talking too. You really are a nut case if you think I would believe a word of that. I can't believe I ever fell for you." screamed Lana. Before she could walk away Pete jumped to his feet and grabbed her shoulders.

"Please Lana I told you this would be hard to understand and accept. You know me, you know Clark. Neither of us has ever lied to you. We've kept things from you yes but never have we flat out lied to you. Clark, show her, prove it to her. CLARK snap out of it man and show her your stuff before you blow this." Yelled Pete.

Clark snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at Pete and Lana for a moment. "Alright look at the fire place Lana." The three of them turned towards the fire place and Clark focused his Heat vision on the logs laying there. A moment later the fireplace burst to life with a warm fire crackling within its walls.

Lana stared at it for a moment before looking back at Clark to catch a brief glimpse of his eyes emitting a red glow. "Alright that was impressive but that doesn't prove you're an alien Clark. I mean come on, an ALIEN. Couldn't you come up with something better?" Clark sighed again before taking off in super speed and returning a moment later with a cup of coffee from the store below.

Lana's eyes grew as big as dinner plates and then grew larger as he proceeded to heat the cup of coffee up with his heat vision. Lana opened and closed her mouth several times making an excellent example of a fish out of water before finally snapping her mouth shut and looking at Clark again with an interested and fearful look in her eyes. "Um… ok that was… interesting." Said Lana

Meanwhile Pete had left the room and was returning with a baseball bat from behind Clark. Lana screamed as she saw Pete bring the bat down as hard as he could over the back of Clark's head but to her astonishment Clark stood still and took the hit as if he was being hit with a feather, while the bat broke into hundreds of tiny pieces flying in all directions. Then a moment later Clark disappeared from view and returned a second later with all the fragments in hand before tossing hem into the fire with the rest of the wood.

Lana fell backwards in shook and landed on the couch she had been occupying with Clark a few minutes earlier. Looking up in shook and fear her bottom lip trembled as she tried to back away slightly before stuttering out. "You…you…your… one of them… your not going t…t…to hurt me a…are you?" Pete threw his hands up in the air in exasperation while Clark stared at Lana for a few minutes before turning his back on Lana and heading for the door.

"I knew I shouldn't have told her Pete. I just ruined the most important relationship in my life. I'm going home." Clark called over his shoulder and before Pete could stop him Clark was gone. Pete rounded quickly on Lana with a look of utmost disappointment and anger on his face. "Way to go genius. That was the perfect way to react. Did you not listen to a damn thing I said to you Saturday night, or to anything that Clark said to you today before he told you about his origins? Or how about even paying attention to how nervous he was. You just completely and totally blew it. I can't believe you. I honestly thought you would be freaked out but I didn't think you would turn your back on him like that." ranted Pete.

"I'm sorry Pete. I didn't mean to. He just scared me with that stuff. I didn't expect anything like this. I just don't know what to think about any of this." Cried Lana as the realization of what she had just done hit her full force and the tears started to come unbidden. Pete sighed heavily once again before sitting beside Lana and wrapping her in a hug.

"Listen Lana it's alright. It's not the end of the world. You can fix this you just need to tell him that you're sorry and you need to give him a chance to talk with you more about this. Why don't we head over towards Clark's house and we can talk to Clark when we get there. He cares for you Lana. You know that. This disappointed him, it hurt him but he is not going to hate you for it as long as you show him that you were just caught off guard and needed a little time to get your act together. This is going to be fine. You just need to understand the way that Clark feels."

"One of his greatest fears is loosing his friends because of what he is. He can't help who or what he is. He was born that way. We need to remember that just because he has these powers doesn't change the fact that he is still the same Clark Kent that we've known since we were kids." finished Pete

Lana nodded her head vigorously. "Ok let's go. I need to talk to him now. I can't let him think that something like this would bother me. I was just freaked out that's all. It's a lot to take in at once. It all makes sense now. I knew I saw him in that tornado a couple years ago. He saved me then and he's saved me several other times too. I want you to take me to Kent farm Pete." Whispered Lana as she whipped the tears and pulled away from Pete.

Pete nodded his head in agreement. He helped her up and let her go get her coat and straighten out her makeup before the pair headed down to his car. Just as they were coming out of the Talon they saw Clark sitting by the car. He looked up and saw Lana standing with Pete and made to leave but Pete spoke up first.

"Wait Clark. Hold up man. Listen she was just a little freaked out. Come on don't do this. She wants to talk to you now. Just get in the car man. We'll head back to your farm. Sit up in the barn for a while and just talk everything through. It's going to be fine really. What do you say?" asked Pete

Clark nodded his head and turned towards the car. He was about to get in when he was stopped by a pair of small arms wrapping themselves around his waist and a warm body being pressed against his back. A moment later he felt wet hot tears seeping into the back of his shirt. "I'm so sorry Clark. I didn't mean it; I swear I didn't mean it. You'll forgive me won't you? I understand if you don't want to go out with me anymore. Please just don't hate me. I don't know what I'd do without your friendship, without having you there for me when I need you." whimpered Lana as she continued to clutch Clark as if he was her lifeline.

A moment later she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her back and she was pulled closer into the man she loved. She felt his hands slowing running through her hair as his other hand rubbed her back gently. Slowly the tears stopped and she sighed happily as she rested her head on his chest. They were brought out of the moment by the horn going off causing them both to jump apart.

They turned to see a smiling and laughing Pete sitting in the driver's seat of the car. "As happy as I am for you two I really would like to get out of here. What do you say we continue this at the Kent farm?" inquired Pete. Clark and Lana nodded their heads in agreement before getting into the car in the back seat. Lana rested her head on Clarks shoulder and the car took off down the road.

* * *

_**Thirty minutes earlier**_

"Sir we're just coming up on the area of the landing area now. According to our satellite readings the ship should be in this field just up ahead." Said Carter as she looked at the satellite image she had in front of her on her laptop. Jack nodded and looked out into the field as the SUV came to a stop. He quickly got out of the SUV and the rest of SG1 followed suit. A moment later SG3 and SG11 had both pulled up and were getting out of their SUV's as well.

"Alright SG11 your with us, SG3 I want you to stay here as back up. Secure the area and make sure nobody approaches the scene." Stated Jack. He looked around for a moment to make sure everybody understood and then moved forward. They walked for about a minute into the field before coming upon the downed ship. Whatever it was, it was obvious that it had landed under its own power.

"Ok guys spread out and look for any signs of ET. Harrison, call to base and get them to send out the equipment for extraction." Ordered Jack as he continued to look around with the rest of his team for any sign of an alien presence. The next half hour passed quickly with SG1 and SG11 surveying the surround area while SG3 held back and waited for the extraction equipment. Tracks in the surrounding area alerted SG1 to the fact that there was indeed an alien present within the ship, or rather there had been. It was obviously nowhere near the ship now and it just meant one more thing they needed to do.

Jack was just about to order the teams out while SG3 made arrangements for the transport of the ship when his cell phone rang. Quickly picking it up Jack answered the call. "O'Neill here." responded Jack as soon as he answered the phone. "Colonel you have incoming. NORAD just picked up two unidentified craft entering the atmosphere at high speeds and heading towards Kansas. Radar images show it as the same type of ship that landed in your area previously. Be on your guard Colonel. I'm dispatching SG7 and SG9 now. It'll be a while before they reach you but their in route. Good luck Colonel" came the voice of General Hammond through the phone. "Thank you sir. We'll take care of it." and with that the line went dead.

"Ok people we're about to have company. NORAD has just picked up two UFO's inbound at high speeds coming towards our location. Intel shows that they are both related to the craft we just secured. It looks like our little alien friend called in the cavalry. SG3 you'll stay here and deal with this ship. I want you to send two men with the ship to watch over it. Once the ship is on route to base the rest of you …" started Jack but he was cut off by the sight of two giant fireballs coming in fast. A moment later the two ships slammed into the ground roughly two miles away from each other with the closest one being nearly eight miles from town.

"Alright SG3 you heard me. When the ship is away meet up with us. We don't know what to expect at this point so we're going to take these ships one at a time. We're heading for the closest one first. I am authorizing the use of deadly force if you deem it necessary. Let's move out." barked O'Neill as they hustled for the SUV's and took off down the road away from town and towards the crashed ship.

* * *

Clark, Pete, and Lana were driving back towards the Kent farm when the sky lit up as two large fireballs fell from the sky. They both landed roughly a couple miles apart as far as they could tell and maybe 10 miles from town tops. Clark was fairly certain that one of the two had landed close to his parents' farm but he wasn't sure. The closer of the two had landed less then half a mile in front of them and a ways into the field. Clark began to feel the same uneasy feeling that he had the last time one of the Brien had shown up and instantly knew that these this was not going to be pretty. 

As they passed the first crash site Clark caught movement with his X-ray vision of to the side as he saw one of the Brien soldiers climb out of its mangled ship. Turning back to Pete quickly he yelled. "Move your ass Pete. You do not want to be anywhere near those things right now." Both Pete and Lana got a terrified look on their faces as Pete slammed his foot into the gas causing the muscle car to jump to life and rocket down the roads and speeds in excess of 140 miles an hours.

Clark watched as the Solider from the first ship took off after them and he knew they had problems. Pulling Lana behind him Clark began firing concentrated blasts of Heat vision out of his eyes behind the car which caused large explosions of fire to appear in front of the rapidly gaining creature. Less then thirty seconds later Clark barely caught sight of a second Solider speeding towards them on a diagonal from just up ahead. Unlike before Clark had no time to warn his friends before the mammoth creature slammed into the car on the passenger side door sending it flying into a sideways roll while stilling to in excess of 140 miles an hour.

In a split second action Clark jumped into super speed while in mid air with the care and grabbed both Lana and Pete before jumping from the car as it righted itself in its rotation and landed smoothly on the ground and came to a stop. Dropping his friend and girlfriend on the ground Clark yelled at them to get them into action. "Run now while you can and don't look back for anything. NOW" and with that he charged forward towards the creatures.

A second later Pete came out of his shocked state and grabbed Lana's hand before running as fast as he could and pulling Lana along as they headed towards the Kent home. "CLARKKKKK" screamed Lana as she watched the first of the large creatures attack him and saw the two hit the ground hard. A moment later she watched as the alien flew back threw the air and slammed into a tree breaking it in half as Clark jumped to his feet and blasted forward faster then the eye could see only to reappear directly in front of the alien form and begin pummeling it with his fists before punching it hard in the chest sending it flying through the tree and back across the field a few hundred feet away. She watched as they continued to run and saw the second alien catch him from behind and send the pair of them hurtling back into the field where she lost sight of them.

* * *

The SUV's barreled towards the crash site at high speeds. They had covered about ninety percent of the distance already and were only a minute or so away at this speed. Jack was anxious to get to the site and deal with the situation so they could head out towards the other one before the alien inside decided to take a tour of the town. As they approached the crash site jack spotted something that made his stomach lurch. He watched as a car raced towards them at incredible speeds and behind it was obviously one of the creatures moving at incredible speeds and gaining on the care. 

Between the two were large explosions of fire which must have been coming from the creature. A second later he watched as another creature sideswiped the car causing it to flip in the air and smash into the ground. They were still to far away to see the details but it looked like the creatures might be fighting amongst themselves which perhaps was a good thing right now as he could now clearly see two civilians begin running for their lives away from the wreckage of their car. How they survived that crash he wasn't sure but he had more important things to worry about right now.

"Stop the trucks and protect the civilians. The situation has changed. Shoot to kill." Yelled Jack as the two SUV's skidded to a stop and the eight military offices jumped out of them just in time to hear the girl scream something that sounded like a name. Perhaps a friend or boy friend. Neither seemed to have noticed them as of yet. A moment later the boy looked forward and skidded to a stop before putting himself in front of the girl.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" demanded the boy as he seemed to weight his options. "No worries kid were the cavalry now get behind us so we can go hunt ET." Just as he said this his eyes widened as the only remaining alien he could see rushed forward towards the wreaked care and hurled it into the air towards the group. "MOVE" yelled Jack as they all scattered and the car slammed into the front SUV before flipping over top of it and landing between the first and second.

"OPEN FIRE" commanded Jack as he began firing rounds towards the large Beast while Lana and Pete rushed behind then and a safe distance away. They watched as the bullets seemed to bounce off the armor as if they were nothing and they quickly switched to explosive rounds before upgrading to grenades. Nothing seemed to work. The grenades seemed to slow the creature slightly but that was all.

Jack stared at the creature as it rushed forward and instantly killed two members of SG 11 before they could do anything. "ZATS" screamed out Jack as the group drew what Pete could only describe as a ray gun and began shooting shots of what looked like electricity at the creature. At first it appeared this had no effect either as the creature rushed forward and killed two more members of their eight party team leaving the last four members reeling backwards. Finally a moment later the creature dropped forward obviously dead. From a huge blast received to the back of the head.

None of the group except for Pete and Lana knew who had done it and both of them were looking frantically for Clark before they saw the second alien fly through the air and slam into the side of the first SUV, knocking it over. The creature was looking obviously worst for wear. Its armor was heavily damaged and it was bleeding from spots all over its body. This however did not stop it from rushing the female of the group and knocking her back towards the direction it had come from with enough force to send her flying nearly twenty feet and hitting the ground hard. The three other members of her team began opening fire on the creature as the young woman struggled to shake off the shock of the blow.

Lana watched in horror as the creature rushed forward for the killing blow at a much slower speed then normal but still fast enough that it was obvious it would likely not die until after it had completed its kill. Just over its shoulder she caught sight of a something else rushing out of the field and stumbling towards the woman. With a start Lana realized that it was Clark and he looked like he had nearly been killed already. He had large gashes across his chest and face. His left arm hung limply at his side and blood was pouring freely from his wounds while he seemed to be limping and apparently unable to use super speed.

Lana stared horrified as time seemed to slow down for her and she knew exactly what was going to happen as she began to scream for him to stop. "No Stop CLLARRKKKKKK" and in that instant she watched as Clark threw himself in front of the young woman with his back facing the creature just as his mighty claw came down and slashed across his back in a vicious attack spraying blood into the air.

A moment later time returned to normal for Lana and she watched as the creature was finally subdued by the remaining military men and Clark seemed to hover in air for a moment before falling forward into the woman's arms as she tried to cradle him carefully.

* * *

Jack watched as the alien cut through SG11 like butter while everything they fired at it bounced off it harmlessly. Finally after discharging dozens of ZAT rounds into the creature it seemed to crumple to the ground dead. For an instant he thought they had killed it until he saw the huge hole in the back of its head and remembered the small flash he saw from behind. It was like those explosions they had saw on their way here. 

He watched as the second creature flew threw the air and slammed into the side of the SUV. It was obviously heavily damaged and must not have realized where it was jumping. That was the only explanation why it had landed nowhere near them. An instant later it had attacked Carter. He watched as it advanced on his friend for the killing blow and he called out a warning but he knew it was too late already. He continued to fire and a moment before he saw the creature bring it's claw down he heard a loud scream behind him and this time he heard it perfectly. "No Stop CLLARRKKKKK" and that was when he saw the boy. Limping out of the field as fast as he could and throwing himself in front of Carter at the last second only to be cut down viciously by the alien.

Less then a second later the creature fell to the ground dead from it's injuries as the boy fell forward into Carters arms. He was already rushing forward with Daniel at his side before either body hit the ground.

He could hear the girl behind him crying loudly for what was most likely her boyfriend and the boy with her was trying to sooth her in some manner. From up ahead she heard Carter talking lightly to the boy as they reached him.

The sight was horrible. Their was so much blood. Even for him it was surprising. He had wounds all over his body. It looked like he been in a fight with the thing earlier somehow and survived only to sacrifice himself in the end. He was struggling to breathe as blood flowed freely from his back and chest as well his mouth.

He had completely missed Carters words as he studied the carnage laid out on the boys' body but he was aware of them now. "Shhh… it's going to be ok. Just hand in their Clark. I won't let you die here. You just need to fight this. I know it hurts and I know your tired but you just need to hang on a little bit and we'll get you good as new in no time ok." Said Sam as she tried to smile warmly at the boy who was smiling up at her as if telling her that it was alright.

It was the first time in a very long time that Jack had seen Carter cry. It was silent but she was crying. The tears ran down her cheeks as she knew the boy was slipping away and there was little they could do about it here. "Jack you have to something. You can't just let him die here. The Daedalus is in orbit. You can have them take us directly to the SGC. Janet might be able to save him." begged Sam as more tears slid down her face. At this moment the young girl who had been crying skidded to a stop beside them and grabbed the teen from Carters arms, hugging him close to her as she began crying in earnest. The boy that had been with her seemed to be in a state of shock and disbelief. It was as if he couldn't believe this could happen. The only sign that he realized the full extent of what had happened was the sadness in his eyes.

Jack nodded his head in understanding. There was no choice now. They had to contain the situation and if the boy died it would be hard to explain away. Especially with his girlfriend and perhaps best friend present to see it happen. "Daniel, call the Daedalus and give the order. We need to get you, Carter, and these three to the SGC immediately while Teal'c and I deal with clean up." Commanded Jack as he looked back at the boy on the ground.

* * *

Clark shot into the field as one of the Brien warriors tackled him around the waist and separated him from his friends. Landing hard on the ground Clark quickly kicked the beast in the chest sending it into the air. As it came down its claw flew out and ripped across Clark's chest as he grunted in pain and slammed his fist into the back of the creatures head sending it into the ground hard. 

It quickly rolled over as Clark jumped on top of it and they began exchanging blows frankly to see who would win. Finally the creature kicked him off and sent him flying across the field with a serious of fresh wounds scattered across his body. Getting to his feet Clark could hear the gun fire and the screams coming from near by. Rushing forward Clark caught sight of the second Brien soldier killing off four military looking people before turning on the other four and his friends. Thinking quickly Clark concentrated on firing the most powerful beam he could from his eyes and kept it up as the military personnel continued to fire on it. The combined pressure on the armor seemed to weaken in as his beam broke through and killed the creature instantly causing it to drop forward dead.

Clark grunted in pain a second later as the remaining Brien rushed him and slammed his claw into his arm roughly causing it to dislocate from his shoulder. Using his other arm Clark slammed his fist as hard as he could into the face of the creature sending it hurtling out into the street and slamming into the SUV. Clark watched helplessly as the remaining Brien rushed forward at a much slower pace and knocked the female member of the team towards his location as the beast continued to advance on her location.

Clark tried to jump into super speed but found it impossible in his current condition. Moving forward as quickly as he could he knew that he had to make it in time. His body might be able to take the attack but hers would not. It was him that these things were after and his father had told him he had to protect the people of this planet. He was aware of Lana yelling out for him to stop but he couldn't. This was something that he had to do and there was no way of sparing either of them from it. Just as the clawed hand came down in a swiping motion Clark threw himself in the way and felt the claw rip through his back.

Clark was vaguely aware of his surroundings as he fell forward. He thought that the woman he had saved was trying to talk to him but he wasn't sure. His head was ringing, his body ached like nothing he had ever felt before and he wondered briefly if this was what death felt like. The darkness was coming in around him and he smiled absently up at the woman as he noticed that she was crying. He wanted her to know that it wasn't her fault. This was just who he was.

The last conscious thought he had was that he wished he could hold Lana one last time before he died. As the darkness closed in on him he heard her voice clearly and smiled softly as he felt Lana wrap him in her arms. If he was to die this was how he wanted it to happen. In the arms of the woman he loved. There were far worse things to die for then protecting the ones he loved and the people of this planet.


	3. Disaster in the Making

**Author Notes:**

Well Chapter 3 is here people and I hope you like it. I have taken a bit longer then I expected to right this as I kept feeling that it was a little slow. In the end I decided to leave it that way as I felt that it was necessary to add depth to the story. In this chapter Clark, Lana, and Pete will arrive at the SGC so that Clark can receive medical treatment or at least they believe that is what they will be doing. Problems arise when Clarks healing abilities are revealed and the SGC get a hold of a sample of his blood. This entire chapter basically details with the way that the two groups interact and the suspicious that they have of each other.

So read on and be sure to

* * *

**Stargate SG1 – The Last Kryptonian**

Chapter Three: Disaster in the Making

By Cybergades

* * *

Daniel nodded his head in agreement to Jack's order and moved off towards the one remaining SUV to make a call. Getting into the vehicle Daniel picked up one of the cell phones before dialing. "This is Dr. Daniel Jackson; patch me through to General Hammond immediately." Said Daniel when somebody answered the phone. A moment later Daniel could hear the line transfer and General Hammond picked up. "This is Hammond" replied the General as he answered the phone.

"Sir we've had an incident here and need immediate transportation to the SGC medical wing via the Daedalus. We have a teenage civilian who is in critical condition after suffering a vicious attack at the hands of one of the aliens. He and his two friends witnessed both aliens landing and were caught in the middle of the attack. Colonel O'Neal has requested that Sam and I accompany the three civilians back to base immediately. There is no chance the boy will survive if he has to be taken by regular means." Explained Daniel as he looked out through the window where the boy seemed to be lying motionless now.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments before General Hammond's voice came back loud and clear. "Very well Dr. Jackson you have a go. I will inform the Daedalus immediately and they will be in touch. Gods speed. I'll expect a full debriefing once you've returned and have been checked over." replied the General. A moment later the line went dead and Daniel returned to Sam's side.

"Jack we have a go for transport. The Daedalus should be in contact any moment now." explained Daniel as he stood watching the three civilians. Just then Jack's radio went off. "Colonel O'Neal this is Colonel Caldwell of the Daedalus. I've been informed that your people need a lift to the SGC. We're at your disposal." came Caldwell's voice. Jack grabbed the radio quickly and responded. "Colonel I have an injured team member and a seriously injured civilian here along with two witnesses. I need all four of them along with Daniel Jackson to be transported directly to the medical wing of the SGC for immediate treatment." Replied Jack as the remaining two members of SG3 approached.

"Very well Colonel. We're initiating transport now." just as the words passed through the radio a bright flash of white light flashed in front of Jack. When it cleared Daniel, Sam, and the civilians had disappeared. Turning around quickly to address SG3 and Teal'c, Jack began issuing orders to clean up the area and prep the bodies for transport. They needed to get things cleaned up and quickly. They didn't have the people in the area to be able to contain something of this size if anybody else started showing up. It was more then likely they would have to use the Daedalus to beam up the ships and damaged vehicles as well as the bodies. Jack shook his head, this was a mess. The whole operation had gone to hell in a hand bag and now they were left trying to clean up.

* * *

As the light cleared Daniel became aware of his surroundings and quickly called out for help. A moment later Janet rushed in from the other side the room. "My god Daniel what happened." Gasped Janet as she look in the appearance of the young teen that was lying on the ground in the arms of another young teen that was covered in blood. Turning around quickly she began yelling out orders to the medical staff that were present. "Bella, get him down the hall into surgery right away. We'll need to clean out those wound and stitch him up. James help Daniel get Sam into one of the beds here. Crystal get these two into a bed and look them over while I go with Bella." commanded Janet as she pointed out each person in turn before finishing with the two remaining civilians.

As the nurses Bella and Crystal approached Lana and tried to pry her off of Clark she pushed them away violently and began yelling. "No… Don't touch him. I won't let you hurt him." screamed Lana as she continued to cry. Bella stumbled backwards before turning to Janet for further instructions. Pete continued to star at the whole scene in a sort of detached manner as if he just couldn't believe that something like this could happen to his practically invincible friend. Janet Moved forward quickly with Bella and Crystal by their sides and grabbed a hold of Lana, pulling her back off of Clark and towards a bed all the while she kicked and screamed trying to get free. Janet and Bella forced her onto the bed and Janet turned her head briefly towards the other nurse. "Quickly sedate her before she gets free." Said Janet as she continued to hold the girl down.

As few moments later Lana fell asleep due to the drugs and Janet issued her orders to the two nurses again before moving with Bella to deal with Clark. For the next several minutes the room was in absolutely chaos as nurses rushed around running examinations and starting the standard post mission tests. Meanwhile Bella and Janet quickly put Clark onto a stretcher and rushed him out of the room towards surgery down the hall. As she ran beside Bella Janet thought absently that it was going to be a long night. Shaking her head to clear herself of these thoughts she set her mind to the task at hand.

* * *

Pete was freaking out over what had happened and what was currently going on. They could not possibly have been in a worse situation then they were now. The nurses had just taken Clark to take him into surgery. That of course was the problem. Pete couldn't be sure if Clarks powers would still work right now but it was a possibility and if they did there was no way he could think to explain it away. Clark's skin was impenetrable usually. The aliens had obviously been able to cut through him with their claws but that was one of the only times he had ever seen Clark injured.

The problem now was that as soon as they tried to stitch him up or anything of that nature they were very likely to find out that he was not exactly normal. How the hell were they supposed to explain that away? That of course was nothing compared to the blood. His blood was all over the place and while Pete wasn't positive he figured that since Clark was an alien himself that it was more then likely that his blood would be different then humans. They were sure to do tests on his blood to check for infections or something. This was a disaster. This was the freaking military they were with. They would probably turn Clark into a science project or something.

Pete was completely unsure of himself. His mind was drawing a blank and he couldn't think of what to do. Lana was out cold, Clark was damn near dead and on his way to surgery and he was surrounded by nurses and guards. What the fuck were they going to do? There was no way out of it. He could only hope that somehow they overlooked the fact that Clark was just your friendly farm boy alien and play off anything that they found as being a reaction to the alien that had attacked him.

* * *

Clark awoke what felt like only a moment after the darkness claimed him. He had never felt this weak before in his life. Those Brien had kicked his ass and now every inch of his body hurt like never before. His body was having difficulty healing it, he could tell.

His mind was reeling with thoughts but the most prominent at the moment was that he was completely unaware of where he was, who the people surrounding him were, and where his friends were. His father had told him to beware of the Brien. They were known to fight dirty against Kryptonians back in the war. He had said that they constantly laced their claws with a biological compound which released low levels of radiation similar to that of Kryptonite and that once it was in the blood stream it was difficult for the body to fight it off.

Clark was pretty sure he would live but he would be weak for a while. His father had told him that while exposed to the yellow sun that the earth circled his body would be able to fight off the infection. It would however leave him weakened to some extent and his healing rate would drop. Clark cursed himself for allowing the Brien to inflict such serious wounds upon him. His blood would be packed with that stuff now after wounds of this size.

Shaking himself of his thoughts Clark tried to focus on what was going on around him. He could hear voices around him and see lights flashing overhead. It felt like he was moving but he wasn't coherent enough to fully comprehend what was going on. Whoever was talking now was obviously the boss. It was a female, he could tell that much. She held authority in her voice and from the little bit he could pick up she seemed to be talking about him.

He felt himself come to a stop after being brought into a room of some sort and he was moved onto a table. The woman he had heard moments earlier swam in his vision as she looked down at him and pointed a light into each of his eyes before yelling out something to somebody else that sounded vaguely like a request for some type of drug based on the volume requested.

Janet walked over to Clark's side and checked his pulse. While it was extremely weak it seemed to at least be stable which meant that he probably wasn't going to die on her operating table. Janet turned around and called out for scissors as she cut off the teen's shirt to give her a better view of the damage he had suffered. A moment later Bella returned with several syringes filled with varying drugs from Morphine to epinephrine.

Janet took the needle with the morphine first and moved to interest it into his arm so that she could dull the pain somewhat only to be shocked beyond belief to the point of dropping the syringe on the floor where it shattered. She couldn't believe it. The needle had bent backwards when she tried to insert the needle into his arm. What the hell was going on? Picking up the next one she tried again with the same results in a different spot. It was unbelievable. It was like his skin was impervious to damage and yet she knew it wasn't because he was sitting in front of her with cuts all over his body.

After a couple of tries she turned to Bella who was staring wide eyed at the boy before asking for another syringe only this time empty. A moment later Bella returned with the needle and Janet inserted the needle into one of the wounds carefully. To her surprise the needle sunk into the wound without incident. Coming out of her shock Janet quickly took a blood sample before placing it aside and taking a secondary sample just to be on the safe side.

Realizing there was little else that they could do she asked Bella to get her the drugs again so that she could administer them through his wounds before moving off to the site of the room to gather up a few items to clean the boy up. It seemed that other then making him comfortable there was nothing they could do.

* * *

Clark watched through half lidded eyes as the two nurses gave him something that seemed to reduce the pain substantially and something else that began to make him tired. Even as he tried to force himself to stay away he felt his eyes closing as an effect of whatever drug it was they had given him. He had watched as the woman who was treating him tried to inject him only to have the needle bend and knew in that instant that he was in trouble. He had been to weak and out of it to do anything about it but even as his eyes closed his last thought was that after everything he had been through, after finally winning Lana for his own, he would never get to enjoy that life because now he would just be their Ginny pig for the rest of his life or a fugitive on the run from the government. In that instant a single tear ran down his cheek before he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Outside in the hall Janet turned to Bella quickly. "Bella I want you to return to the infirmary and make sure that the young girl remains sedated. Keep a guard on both her and the boy she's with. When you get there please send Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter up to the briefing room provided that their cleared and if their not call me and let me know. I'm heading up to see the General and report what I discovered about our young friend." Ordered Janet and then ran off towards the elevator without waiting for a response.

* * *

Janet walked towards the Generals office nearly ten minutes later and knocked lightly on the door. He looked up briefly from his desk and smiled at her before welcoming her in. "Please come in doctor. What can I do for you today? How are our people doing?" inquired George. Janet smiled warmly at the older man before closing the door behind her and taking a seat. "Hello General. I'm not actually sure how Sam and Daniel are doing right now as I haven't been back to the infirmary since I finished up with the young teen that was brought in with them. That's actually why I'm here sir. I've discovered something rather interesting about the boy and I wanted to bring them to your attention." Stated Janet.

George nodded his head to show that he understood and gestured for her to continue. "I was attempting to administer the usual spectrum of drugs that we would typically use in this type of a case before starting surgery to stitch the boy up. But when I tried to insert the needle into his arm it broke. It bent clean backwards. I was so surprised I dropped it. I tried several more in other places of his body and I got the same effects. The needle either bent or just clean broke off. The boy's skin appears to be impenetrable. I'm not sure what to make of it. I mean he's obviously not invincible since he has the wounds to prove it but at the same time his skin is obviously able to prevent a needle from puncturing It." continued Janet as she looked at the General.

George stared wide eyed at the woman in front of him for a moment before responding. "Do you believe he's a threat to this base doctor?" inquired George. Janet shook her head before continuing. "No sir I don't believe so. At the moment he can barely move due to his injuries. I actually have to say that I'm not even sure he'll live. I can't treat him in his current condition. I did find that I was able to administer the drugs I wanted through the wounds he had. It seems that perhaps only his skin is resistant to damage. Under that it seems like it just went right in. he reacted the same as I expected to the drugs and I was able to get a blood sample as well." commented Janet. George nodded his head in understanding and was about to respond when there was a knock on the door and it opened to admit Sam. Daniel, Jack, and Teal'c.

George looked up at the assembled group before standing. "Let's take this in the briefing room. My small office isn't big enough for the six of us and it seems we have a fair bit to discuss. We might as well debrief now." commented George before gesturing them out the door and following them into the briefing room.

The group took their seats around the conference table with General Hammond sitting at the head of the table and the others sitting on either side of him. Jack looked across towards Teal'c and his thoughts drifted. He and Teal'c had just got back a few minutes earlier and checked in on Sam right away. When they had gotten there they had found one of the nurses mentioning that she and Daniel were being requested by Janet in the briefing room. It appeared that they had not heard anything on the boy yet but the other two were fine.

Sam had apparently suffered a dislocated shoulder which required her arm to be in a sling but other then that she was in good condition. It had taken them nearly twenty minutes to get everything cleaned up back in Smallville and even then the government would have to be issuing a statement at some point about the two ships that landed to explain them away. Ultimately they had used the Daedalus to transport everything out of the area and into holding bays here at the SGC. The bodies had been sent to the morgue and the wreckage from the car and the SUV were put into a storage bay at the SGC as well until something could be done with them.

The whole operation from start to finish had been a nightmare come to life and Jack was not looking forward to this particular briefing at all. They had at least confined the exposure of the incident but with the three civilians being involved it was going to be very difficult to get away without telling them something. Their ages would require informing their legal guardians about the incident to some extent as well and if a cover story was to be used then of course that would require that the kids be brought in on it to some extent in order to keep it from spreading. In general it was just a nightmare.

Jack pushed those thoughts away. It would all come out during the debriefing anyways so there was no point worrying about it now. At this point his only real concern was if the boy was going to live or not. His injuries had been horrific and Jack found himself quite concerned for many reasons. If the boy died it would be next to impossible to keep things under wraps. It would be highly unlikely that his parents or his friends would be willing to keep it a secret if he lost his life as a result of the incident. If he lived there was at least a chance.

Jack was brought out of his musings by the Generals voice resounding throughout the briefing room. "Ok let's get this briefing underway. Doctor Frasier will be joining us today as she has some interesting information to provide us in regards to the young teen boy who was attacked." informed General Hammond while looking at each of them in turn. "So it seems we're all here. What can you tell me Colonel?" inquired General Hammond. Jack nodded before beginning an explanation of what had happened.

"Well sir the first part of the mission went as planned. We arrived in the area around 10pm tonight and began operations to secure and transport the alien ship which landed in Smallville roughly a week and a half ago. I ordered SG3 to maintain a perimeter while SG11 accompanied us to the crash site to survey the damage and see if we could find any sign of an alien presence. We found evidence that there had at the very least been one alien in the ship and there were tracks leading away from the ship towards town. I was about to send out SG11 to see if they could follow the tracks and find some sign of the alien when you called in reporting two more ships in route." Explained Jack.

"I assigned SG3 to transport the ship we had found and told them to have two of their unit follow the ship back to base with instructions for the remaining two to join up with us when the ship was away. SG11 followed along with us as we headed towards the crash site of the first ship which was roughly eight miles out. We were maybe a mile out when I spotted a muscle car fleeing the area at high speeds with an alien in fast pursuit. It seemed to be firing some type of energy weapon at the car and was missing causing large explosions to form between the two. A second alien then joined the fight, presumably from the second ship resulting in the car being struck on the passenger side and causing it to crash at high speeds."

"The three civilians we have here now are the three from the car. They managed to survive the accident and were then caught in the middle of the fight. At first we were only aware of the two in the infirmary. The third boy, Clark I believe his name is, somehow ended up in the opposite field and was obscured from our vision. Based on his injuries I believe he was attacked by the one of the two aliens and somehow managed to live although I'm not aware how. At one point before we were able to actually reach the scene something assaulted one of the two aliens, knocking it into the field where Clark later emerged. At the time I had thought the two aliens were fighting but I'm not so sure anymore." Continued Jack as he followed the course of events. For the next hour Jack went into great detail about the battle the proceeded and the damage that was done to both property and personnel before finally wrapping up.

"That's when the second alien rushed towards Carter for the kill and as it was approaching the boy Clark emerged from the same field with an assortment of injuries and threw himself in between Carter and the alien resulting in his near death. We were able to subdue the alien a moment later." Finished Jack as he turned towards the rest of his team.

General Hammond nodded his head in understanding before addressing the others. "Is there anything else the rest of you would like to add to this before Dr. Frasier takes over?" inquired General Hammond. He was about to continue when the deep voice of Teal'c cut through the air. "My symbiote was quite uncomfortable during the entire exchange. Even after the aliens had been dealt with it was still restless. It was as if it was afraid of something. I am unsure if this was a reaction to the aliens we were battling or something else." Commented Teal'c.

"You know Teal'c now that you mention it I felt something as well. It wasn't the same feeling that I get when I sense a Goa'uld but it was sort of a pull at the edge of my consciousness. I can't explain it either. I hadn't considered it at the time because I was worrying about other things but now that you bring it up I know it was there." said Sam as she thought back on the end of the battle.

"Anything else to be added?" inquired General Hammond as he looked around the room. "I just don't think things added up quite right during the whole battle. The biggest surprise to me at this point was that Clark obviously survived an actual fight or run in with one of these aliens before we were even aware of it. His injuries when he came out of the field were extensive as it was. What confuses me is that he didn't appear to have any combat training and yet he survived where all four members of SG11 were killed within seconds."

"The creatures were fast too. Almost faster then the eye could see. In addition something caused extensive damage to the second alien before we could even get to it. That something was obviously in the field as that was where the creature came from. When it came out the alien was nothing like its counterpart. It was still fast but not much more so then one of us and it was already bleeding profusely. On the whole I'm at a loss for what could have happened." Replied Daniel.

General Hammond turned towards Janet and nodded for her to proceed. Janet smiled in return before beginning. "Alright first couple of things I think I have at least some possible answers to the questions we have floating around. Unfortunately the answers I do have are more likely to just bring up a whole slew of new questions rather then bring us closer to an understanding. I was attempting to begin surgery on Clark and as such I was starting with a series of medications that I knew he needed including pain killers and a sedative to put him out. The problem is that when I went to use the needles they broke against his skin. As best as I could tell his skin is extremely tough. I don't know how strong but at least strong enough that the needle broke and I believe far stronger then that." Stated Janet

"I was able to get a blood sample and I'm hoping to run some tests on it and find out what's going on. If I had to guess I would say that this is the very reason that he was able to fight off or at least survive the alien while he was attacked. The attacks themselves were far less effective against him then they were against SG11. My understanding is that the members of SG11 were nearly cut in half by their respective attacks while Clark seems to have only suffered deep wounds in two places and several shallow rounds as well as other internal injuries. Hopefully this sample of his will tell me a little more about his condition. My biggest concern however at this point is that since we can't penetrate his skin all we can do is make him comfortable and hope that he survives. There's little I can do." Concluded Janet.

Sam nodded her head solemnly in understanding along with the rest of them before speaking up. "I get the impression that the pair of kids that came with him are holding something back from us. The boy Pete seemed very nervous as did the girl. I believe their may potentially be more to Clark then we already know and the two of them are trying to protect his secret whatever that might be. Since he is the only other person we are aware of being there it might fill in some more blanks if he turns out to have other abilities that they have not told us about. Perhaps more offensive abilities then the defensive type he seems to have exhibited so far." Finished Janet.

General Hammond seemed to consider this for a moment before speaking. "Alright this gives us a lot to look into. I don't believe in coincidences and this appears to be one. Let's keep an eye on all three of them. Put them up in a room that the three of them can share and make sure it's bugged so that we can potentially get some more information out of them. It's still a possibility that they were just in the wrong place and the wrong time and one of them happened to have abilities to defend himself and his friends but I would rather not be caught with our pants down on this. When Mr. Kent is well enough to be moved send him back to his room. I want them restricted to common areas. Keep them away from anything sensitive. For the time being don't answer any questions that would lead them to knowledge of the Stargate. Keep an eye on our young Mr. Kent but try to be casual about it. If he does have offensive abilities I don't want to spook him. The last thing we need is any of them to feel that they are in danger here. As long as they believe they are safe and that they can leave anytime they want its unlikely we will have any problems with them. In the mean time gather as much information as you can on Smallville and these three teenagers along with their families. Doctor I want you to run your tests on that blood sample and get back to us with the results. Let's see what we can shake loose. You're dismissed." Said General Hammond.

* * *

Clark awoke a few minutes later feeling light headed and only slightly better then he had when he fell asleep. It seemed they had underestimated his abilities or they didn't know the true extent of them yet. His healing abilities had made short work of the sedative in his blood stream of course that also meant that it had made short work of the pain killers and his body was back to hurting like a son of a bitch again. Now at least the ringing in his head was starting to calm down a bit and he was able to think back to what had happened in Smallville as well as what he could remember hearing.

He remembered hearing the woman who he had saved mention something about the Daedalus being able to transport them directly to something or some place called the SGC. He could only assume that what she was referring to was the place that he was currently located which would mean that Pete and Lana were here somewhere as well. These people were obviously military but what Clark wondered was why were they there in the first place. They couldn't have possibly known about the aliens before hand or at least not enough to get there in time. Smallville was hours away from any military base. Clark was positive that he hadn't been out for more then ten or twenty minutes the first time. His body would have been in better shape if he had been healing for hours.

They hadn't seemed surprised by the Brien either. Yes they were surprised that they had taken such a beating but they had acted as if seeing an alien was the most common thing in the world. What about those guns they were using. He had never heard of anything that shot some type of electrical charge at the enemy. It was nothing like he had ever seen before. It had looked alien almost. None of this made any sense at all.

What about the clean up. He was sure that he had heard the commander of the team mention something about cleaning up the area. Why would they clean up the area unless they wanted to keep it hidden from the public? Who were these people? Nothing added up and it bothered Clark to think that some strange group from the government had him and his two friends in a confinement of sorts even if it was for their own medical benefit. It could quickly change.

Clark sighed heavily. This was going to be a mess. That doctor had taken a sample of his blood. She already knew about his invincibility. That sample would likely tell them a lot more. It wouldn't take her long to realize that something weird was going on and then the real questions would start and god knows they were going to have quite a few to begin with. _'Especially now that they've seen that my skin can break that needle. It won't be long before they realize I'm healing quickly as well.'_ thought Clark with another inward sigh.

* * *

Jack led the way out of the briefing room and turning to speak to his team. "Daniel I want you to begin the research on Smallville and find out all you can about these three kids. Check into their backgrounds, their friends, their family, everything. I want to know their lives better then they do. Teal'c, you and I are going to handle the security arrangements. I want you to make arrangements with the head of security to bug their room while making absolutely sure that these kids are completely unaware of it. No guards outside their doors but assign guards down the corridor from them and keep some additional guards on call close by incase their needed."

"Let's give them the illusion of freedom. At least this way they'll feel like we trust them. With a little luck one of the three will let their guard down and let something slip. I'm going to go talk to our two friends in the infirmary first and then I'll head down to talk to the Clark. Hopefully I can get some information out of them. I don't want them to know we are checking up on them. Their anxious enough as it is. Let's keep them from going into a full blown melt down."

"Carter, you and Janet head down to the labs and run the tests on his blood. See what you can find out about it. Radio me if you guys have any problems." Said Jack. Jack looked at his team and was about to send them on their way when he was interrupted by Janet.

"Colonel I believe it would be better if I ran the test myself while Sam visited with Clark Kent. Of all of us she would have the most reason to visit him. He saved her life and as such she can visit him under the pretense of thanking him for what he did. Life and death situations tend to forge strong friendships. It is completely possible that she may be able to forge a bond of some sort between them and as such open up a whole new avenue for us to gather information. If he feels safe around her as he might with friends he may left something slip or perhaps even tell her freely. I believe that this may be the best chance we have of getting anything out of him. If not this then I believe the others will be the only ones we have a chance of getting any information from." Suggested Janet as she looked Jack in the eyes.

Jack stared back at Janet a moment before turning to Sam. "Carter what do you think? He did save your life. Do you feel comfortable using that against him to get information?" inquired Jack while looking between the two. Sam looked thoughtful for a moment before responding. When she did she smiled lightly. "Honestly sir I don't think we're going to find anything bad about him. I do get the sense that there is something that we don't know but I also feel that any person who could throw themselves in front of such an obviously deadly attack to save somebody they had never met before has to be good. I have no problem talking to him and asking questions but unless I find something that I feel the rest of you need to know I would rather not betray his confidences." Sam said in a serious tone.

Jack looked between the rest of his team and Janet before looking back at Sam. The rest of them seemed to be thinking along the same lines and he couldn't say he had any good reason to suggest otherwise. Finally deciding that there was no reason to deny her reasoning Jack nodded his head in agreement. "Alright we all have our assignments. Do what you can and then get some sleep. We'll meet back here at 930 hours tomorrow morning." Replied Jack before turning and heading in the direction of the infirmary without waiting for a respond.

Sam watched as the others left to take care of their tasks before slowly turning and heading towards Clark's room. She had been telling the truth when she said that she didn't want to betray the boys confidences and likewise she really didn't feel that what they were missing some something evil in any way, shape or form. That didn't keep her from being just as curious as the rest of them. Anything that could cause her senses to go funny like they had earlier was something worth learning about. Truthfully she was looking forward to talking with him. While she may have a job to do and that may be the reason that she was heading to the boys room right now it was not the only reason she was going. She had intended to visit him at some point anyway and thank him for his help. This just gave her a good excuse to go earlier.

* * *

Jack entered the hospital wing a few minutes later after navigating his way through the endless halls and corridors of the SGC. Walking through the doors to the large medical wing Jack directed his attention to the two beds in the corner where his two charges were currently located. From his position at the door Jack could make out that Lana was still sleeping from her small dose of sedative which would likely wear off in a few hours while Pete was sitting up in his bed looking positively freaked out as if somebody had just killed his puppy. Deciding that now was as good a time as any Jack put on his game face as he liked to call it and did what he did best. He began to play dumb.

"Hey kid I think you need to relax a bit. You look like shit." Said Jack bringing the boy out of his thoughts. Pete literally jumped a foot in the air in surprise. He had been thinking about the disaster of a situation that they had landed themselves in and had been so lost in his thoughts that he had completely forgotten the world around him. Well if he was to be truthful to himself he had been doing it since almost the moment they arrived at this base. His mind just kept coming back to one thing over and over again. He had failed Clark and now there was nothing he could do. His entire life would be ruined by this.

Oh he didn't think for a moment that these people would hold Clark. They couldn't keep him here if their lives depended on it. They had no idea what his weakness was and there was no way they could hold him otherwise. That wasn't the point. The point was that when Clark got out of here his life as he knew it would officially be over. Hell there lives as they knew them would be over as well. All three of them would be fugitives from the government. What a group they would make; an alien on the run with his best friend and his girlfriend. He just couldn't wrap his mind around the finality of it all.

Looking up to see who surprised him Pete could have groaned out loud at his shitty luck. It was perhaps one of the top five people that he did not want to see right now. He could only guess that they had found something interesting by now about Clark and were now going to try and pump them for information. If Pete didn't know for a fact that they would want information on Clark he would have probably been fooled by his kind tone of voice and the stupid look on his face but as it stood he was damn near positive that this guys only reason for being here at the moment was for gathering information.

Putting on his best game face he could Pete tried to look like he was incredibly stressed out over the past days events but for a completely different reasons. "Yeah I suppose your right. I just can't believe that shit actually happened. I mean those were a bunch of fucking aliens for crying out loud and they beat the shit out of my best friend. Now were stuck in this hospital like a bunch of prisoners, my best friend could be dead for all I know and his girlfriend has been pumped full of what I can only assume is a sedative. The end result is I am probably the only one coherent enough to of the three of us to realize just how incredibly screwed up this all is." commented Pete in his best imitation of an extremely stressed person.

"Listen kid, everything's going to be fine. While I can't be sure of your friend's fate at this time I can tell you that the one next to you is going to be fine in a few hours. They just had to knock her out to get to your friend. The General is making arrangements for a room for you guys as we speak. Should be ready here within the next hour or so and then I can have the SF at the door take you and Miss Lang down there so you guys can get some sleep. We'll sort all this stuff out in the morning." Remarked Jack.

"I'm sorry that it's taken us so long to get you any information. Things have been a little crazy here as I'm sure you can imagine. Four of our men died out there tonight and a good friend of mine was hurt not to mention your friend Clark who was seriously injured. It's all caused a lot of work for us to do so once again I apologize for leaving you here alone without any information." said Jack as he tried to start things off and put the teen at ease.

For the first time since they had arrived Pete began to form at least some semblance of a plan. The Colonel had provided him with the perfect opportunity. If he could make it seem like he trusted them completely he might be able to through them off Clarks trail to some extent with using disinformation. It was a long shot but at the very least it might allow him to slow their investigation down enough to give Clark some time to get back on his feet and get them out of here. He could only hope it worked.

Pete smiled and relaxed himself in an effort to play along with his plan. "Thanks for your concern sir. I'm just worried about Clark and want to get home. It was horrible what happened out there and what happened to Clark was even worse. Do you know anything about his condition yet?" inquired Pete in a soft voice as if he was afraid of the answer.

Jack smiled back at the teen. It seemed that his approach was working. The boy seemed to be warming up to him a bit. "To be honest Pete we're not sure what's going to happen to your friend at this point. It doesn't look like there is anything we can do for him. You might be able to help us there though. You see when our doctor tried to start stitching him up she couldn't pierce his skin with the needle. Everything we've tried doesn't work. At this point all we've been able to do is make him comfortable by shooting him full of morphine through one of his wounds. If you know anything about him that you think might help us we would appreciate it. We really don't want to see the kid die, especially not after he saved my friends life. By the way you can call me Jack. Sir makes me sound old." said Jack with concern in his voice.

Thinking quick Pete used the only thing he could think of that might allow him to explain away a few things. At the very least they needed to get Clark out of here so that he could get away. "I'm not too sure what I can tell you Jack. Clark has always kept to himself mostly. Even though I'm his best friend the most I've got out of him is that he has a power of sorts." Said Pete with a look of sorrow on his face. "I've seen him use it a few times and that's about it. Frankly a lot of weird things happen around Clark and around Smallville in general, especially after the meteor shower all those years ago. That's where Clark says he got his power was from the meteors." Continued Pete.

Pete looked down at the floor pretending as if he was fighting an internal battle with himself over telling the Colonel everything that he supposedly knew. He had to make sure that his act held up or it would all be for not. Finally he looked up slowly and looked into the Colonel's eyes. "Promise you won't tell anybody other then who absolutely needs to know and that you won't hurt him. I promised him that I would never tell but if it saves his life or has a chance to anyways then I have to at least try." Said Pete.

Jack nodded his head in agreement. "I swear to you Pete that nobody will hurt your friend and I will do everything in my power to see to it that only those who need to know are told." Said Jack. Pete nodded in understanding before taking a deep breath and making a big show of looking carefully at Lana as if he didn't want her to hear him betraying Clark.

"You see Smallville is a lot different then any other place in the world. We've been hit with two huge meteor storms in the past sixteen years or so. While I'm sure that there are other places in the world that have been hit by meteor showers over the years these meteors have had a lot of strange side effects on people who were exposed to them. Most people in Smallville tend to refer to those people who are affected as meteor freaks. The meteors have given special powers to a ton of people in Smallville. The real problem is that the majority of the time as far as Clark and I could figure out these people end up going crazy if you know what I mean and we have sort of been on the front line of fighting against them as corny as that sounds." said Pete.

"The thing that nobody knows except the three of us and Clark's mom is that Clark himself was affected by the meteor rocks when he was a kid. But unlike a lot of the people in town who freak out and go all nuts he's been able to keep his head on straight. The rocks gave him virtually impenetrable skin. It's come in real handy when we're fighting these guys because they can't usually hurt Clark. This is one of the only times I have ever seen him hurt before. I mean I've seen a couple of meteor freaks beat on him a few times to the point where they somehow managed to cut his lip or bruise him up but it was never anything like this. And I've seen him take some nasty shots too. I'm not sure what you will be able to do."

Jack started wide eyed at the kid in complete and utter shock. That had not been what he was expecting. The way this kid was explaining it, this town had an army of whack jobs with super powers who wanted to kill anything that moved. How was it that this had never come to the attention of the SGC? "You're telling me that there is a city full of mutated psychopaths in your town and we've never heard about it. How is that possible?" replied Jack. This was exactly what the SGC was all about. If anybody should have known it should have been them. The fact that it had completely eluded their knowledge was a big deal. Jack suddenly understood what the boy was worried about and moved to remove his doubts.

"Listen Pete, you have nothing to worry about. I can't tell you much because you don't have clearance but I can tell you that we deal with this type of thing all the time. You're friend is not in any trouble, especially not after saving Sam." Stated Jack in a calming voice.

"Thanks Jack. I appreciate it. I just was really worried that you guys would take him away from us and turn him into some kind of science project or something. It's his biggest fear and it's passed on to those of us who know about his secret." Said Pete as he leaned back against the bed with a sigh as if he was exhausted. Inside of course Pete was ecstatic. He had bought it hock, line, and sinker. It was better that Clark be thought of as a meteor freak then an alien. If he was really lucky they would leave him alone now but it was more likely that they were going to just look in that direction and leave out the more extreme possibilities. At least he had bought some time.

Pete looked back up at the man with a look of confusion on his face as he jumped into the next phase of his plan. It was time to make it seem like he was the curious young teen and put them on the run. One of two things would happen. First was he would get some information out of him that he could use to figure out what was going on. Second was that Jack would try to hide the information and in doing so he would put himself against a wall which would hopefully further help to distract from Clark.

"Um… Jack do you mind if I ask a couple of questions now? I've been a little confused about a few things since we got here and there drive me up the wall." Requested Pete. Jack nodded his head in a distracted manner as his thoughts were still on what Pete had told him. "Well where exactly are we and how did we get here. It didn't take us more then a second to get from the side of the road into this base where it is. We didn't move from our spot, we didn't get into any type of transportation. We just disappeared from one spot and reappeared in another. How exactly did that happen?" inquired Pete with confusion and interest written all over his face.

Jack was brought harshly from his thoughts as he heard the question and cursed inwardly at his inability to anticipate it. He had come to see if he could get any information from the kid and while he had been successful and built a bond of some sort between the two of them he was risking ruining all of that if he didn't tell him something. They hadn't really thought things through at the time when they beamed the group back to the SGC. There was no way that he could explain it to away and not answering was only going to make him suspicious which in turn would likely make the him tight lipped. That of course would then pass onto his friends when they met up and got to start talking amongst themselves.

"That Pete is really hard to explain right now. Listen I know you must have a lot of questions and I would love to hear them but I got to tell you that right this second I'm not likely to be able to answer the majority of them as a lot of this stuff is classified. But I promise you that if you give me until tomorrow and cooperate with me that I will talk to the General and see about getting you and your friends clearance." commented Jack.

Pete nodded his head in understand and pushed himself to look down at the prospect of having been denied. "But I told you about Clark's secret. Don't we deserve to know what the heck is going on here? I mean we were in the middle of a freaking fight with aliens. It was like some sci-fi bullshit or something. I think we deserve to know what was and is going on. Our best friend could die because of it. Don't you think we have the right to know." said Pete.

Jack sighed. This was what he was afraid of. The kid had damn good reasons for knowing and he was going to have to brush him off until at the very least he could get the General to give them clearance. "Listen Pete I will go to bat for you guys. I agree with you. You should be allowed to know what's going on. Give me until morning to see if I can work something out with the General and then we can talk about it again. Ok?" inquired Jack.

Pete nodded his head in understanding before leaning back again and looking somewhat appeased although still looking disappointed. Inside however he was jumping for joy. He had pushed exactly the right buttons and if they could get the information from them then they would have a strong bargaining chip to get them to leave Clark and them alone. After all Clark could get them out anytime after that and they could simply tell them that if they so much as looked in on them then they would tell every news agency In the world whatever this big secret was. It was wonderful.

For the next hour or so the pair of them talked about the various questions that Pete had which ranged from how they knew about the aliens in the first place to why they hadn't so much as blink when you saw those things. And then on to questions about the weapons they had used. Jack had been right of course. Almost none of the questions that he had asked were things he could answer at the time but Pete didn't care at the time. He had sewn the seeds he needed and now he just needed to wait for them to come to fruition.

Pete made a big show of yawning loudly and rubbing his eyes slightly before looking sheepishly towards Jack. "I'm sorry Jack but do you think that room is ready. I'd really like to get some sleep so that I'm ready for whatever comes my way tomorrow. Could we continue this talk in the morning perhaps? It's really been a long day and I'm really tired." questioned Pete as he glanced sideways at Lana who was still sleeping soundly from the medication she had been given.

"I think you're right Pete. Why don't you relax for a bit longer while I check on your rooms for you and then I'll have the SF outside the door take you there? I need to get back to work anyways. I have to write some letters to the families of the men who died tonight." Replied Jack as he stood from the chair he had been sitting in at the end of the bed and turned towards the door. He was halfway out the door when Pete's voice caused him to stop and the words that came out of his mouth almost made him flinch. How much worse could this get.

"Excuse me colonel but what about our parents and friends. People are going to wonder what happened to us. I live with my dad and I'm almost always home by now. He might assume I'm over at Clark's but that will only last until tomorrow. Lana runs a coffee shop just below her apartment and when she isn't there to open shop in the morning it will raise questions. Clark lives with his mom and ever since his dad died about six months back she has been watching him like a hawk. I can almost guarantee you that she already knows he's missing. What's more she's a senator. She's likely to raise the alarm so to speak if she can't find him. There are only a few places he would be this late at night usually and it won't take her long to check them." explained Pete as he looked into his eyes for any sign of his reaction.

He could have smiled when she saw the way his eyes shifted ever so slightly at the words and he knew he had him. There was obviously something going on and now they were being put on the spot. Getting there parents involved, especially an over protective mother who happened to be a US senator would cause some issues. They would ask questions and when they didn't get answers it would not go over well with them.

"I'll have to talk to the general about that Pete. What happened tonight is classified as I said and that makes this a delicate situation. We'll of course inform your families that you're safe and I'll go talk to the General about it right now to let him know what you said about your families' reactions. What happens other then that is completely up to the General." Said Jack before leaving.

* * *

Janet placed the slide on the microscope with a small sample of the blood a moment after handing off the rest of the samples to a couple of her assistants to run a full spectrum of tests on so that they could get a breakdown of the DNA as well as see what kind of things were floating around in the boys system. She was hoping that this sample would give her a clue as to how his skin was so strong.

Looking into the microscope for a moment Janet nearly jumped back in surprise. It was nothing like she had ever seen before. It was completely unlike what a normal human's blood should have looked like. The first thing that Janet had noticed was that the red blood cells were nearly twice the normal size. Mixed in with the red blood cells were several another types of cells that she wasn't quite sure of along with an organism that she had never seen before.

Taking a deep breath Janet leaned back in and studied the slide in more detail while trying her hardest to contain her amazement at what she saw. After looking at the slide for a moment she realized with a start that the cells she was unsure of were actually the White blood cells.

But unlike regular white blood cells these were far more aggressive and seemed to be far more capable. What surprised her about them though was that the cell had five nuclei instead of just one. She had never seen a cell like it before and she was completely at a loss as to why they had more then one in the first place. In addition there seemed to be a lot more of them then was normal in a regular human sample. In fact there was nearly three times as many. These cells were viciously attacking the other cells in the sample which surprised her for a moment until she identified what the organism must be a moment later.

The organisms were attacking the red and white blood cells. What was interesting was that every time they attacked a white blood cell they were destroyed without fail. The red blood cells seemed to succumb to what was obviously a virus of some type and would begin spreading the virus as well. she was about to call for containment when she noticed just what the white blood cells were doing and it caused her to gasp in surprise.

Not only were the white blood cells destroying the virus cells and the infected cells but nearly a third of them had actually begun attacking healthy cells. At first she had thought that they were infected in some fashion and had turned against the body. What happened moments later though surprised her even more. As she watched each of the healthy cells that was attacked were absorbed into the white blood cell and its nucleus was split into five pieces which were then absorbed into the nuclei of the white blood cell. Over the next few seconds the white blood cell would begin to mutate and split into five identical copies of the cell that was just absorbed. As a result one white blood cell became five perfectly health red blood cell with one nucleus sitting in each.

It made perfect sense now and if she understood this correctly then even as she did this Clark's body was actually fighting off and killing whatever virus he had been infected with while his body simultaneously repaired the damage. It was incredible. Just think of the medical possibilities if they could find a way to isolate the white blood cells and use them in somebody else's body. This type of blood cell would be able to cure cancer. It could simply beat out the virus by lasting longer. Coupled with things like surgery or Chemo therapy it would be able to keep a patient alive while the treatment cured them. Or it could be used to replace blood transfusions. Pumping a patient with these cells when they were loosing blood would allow the blood to replenish itself at an accelerated rate. With cells like this his immune system was actually able to combat illness as well as reproduce any cell within the body as long as it was healthy. In essence he would be able to combat almost any illness. It was a miracle cure. The cell would eat the cell it wished to mimic and then split into five copies of that cell effectively causing the body to heal at an extremely accelerated rate while the rest of the white blood cells destroyed the infected cells.

As Janet continued to watch the slide she vaguely heard the door to the lab open but she ignored it in favor of continuing to study the slide in front of her with interest. A moment later something strange happened. The white blood cells began to slowly start to die off one by one for seemingly no reason at all. They began exhibiting a light green glow along with the rest of the cells in the sample and one my one the cells began breaking apart. It made no sense. What could have possibly been causing it? Janet looked up from the slide to ask if any of the tests had come back yet when she was interrupted by a scientist standing beside her with a glowing green rock of some type.

The color the rock was glowing caught her attention and she was about ready to yell at the idiot for brining an untested sample into a lab like this but was interrupted by the idiot in question. "Excuse me Dr. Frasier but I was told to bring this up to you for testing. It was recovered with the ship from Smallville earlier tonight." said the scientist before nodding his head and leaving. Janet stared blankly at the rock for a second before calling out to one of her assistants.

"Elizabeth, take this rock to one of the other labs before it kills all our samples. Tell them to put it in quarantine. It seems to exude some type of radiation or energy since it is affecting this sample." said Janet as she returned to her slide. As she watched the slide the cells slowly stopped glowing and their decomposition slowed as well. Before long the white blood cells began their process of duplicating the healthy cells again with a smile on her face. She had now found out at least a few more interesting things about the young Mr. Kent.

* * *

Clark sat up slowly in his bed and groaned at the pain he felt in his chest and back. He could feel his body knitting itself back together again and it was none to pleasing to experience. He had already had his shoulder pop back into place which had been interesting and his wounds had stopped bleeding for the most part leaving only his two largest wounds on his chest and back to leak ever so slightly from the thin cuts that remained. He had to admit he was surprised at how things were coming along. His body seemed to be fighting the virus off faster then what he had expected it to and as such his healing seemed to be picking up. At this rate it would only be a few hours before he was fully healed and by morning he would be clean of the virus's effects leaving him only slightly sluggish for a week or two while his body shook off the side effects by replacing all the old cells.

The doctors had wrapped his wounds in bandages which he supposed was a good thing since if anybody walked in right now they would be shocked to notice that almost a third of his injuries had healed.

Just as this thought finished passing through his mind his attention was drawn towards the door as it slid open to reveal the young woman whom he had saved that night in Smallville. He was glad to see that her injuries weren't too bad. It appeared that she had a broken arm or perhaps a dislocated shoulder as she had her arm in a sling but other then that she seemed fine and smiled brightly when she saw him sitting up in bed.

"Hello Clark. It's nice to finally get a chance to meet you properly. Our last meeting wasn't exactly under the best of circumstances. My names Samantha Carter but you can call me Sam." Said Sam as she continued to smile at the teen and held out her hand. Clark smiled back at her before returning her welcome, shaking her hand and asking her how she was feeling.

The pleasantries continued like this for several minutes before the pair began talking back and forth about random things as Sam got to know the teen that had saved her life a little better. After nearly a half hour of idle chatter Sam got a more serious look on her face and looked right into Clarks eyes.

"Clark I just wanted to really thank you for what you did to me. It seems obvious that you have some type of special ability that makes you harder to injure then others but even so you were already severely injured when you threw yourself in front of that attack for me so you must have known that these things could hurt you. Whatever your reason was for doing it I just really wanted to thank you. I know for a fact that you saved my life and I don't think there is ever any way I could repay you for that. If there is ever anything I can do to make it up to you I'm willing. For what it's worth you've made yourself a friend. If you ever need anything just let me know." said Sam sincerely as she continued to look at the young teen that had saved her life.

Clark looked up at the woman in surprise. It wasn't often that he got thanked for the things he did. This was mostly because most of time nobody realized it was him that did it. That was part of the requirements of keeping his powers a secret. He had jumped right in front of her though and she had found out about at least one of his unique traits. He was surprised by just how grateful she was. "I appreciate your gratitude Sam but you really don't need to thank me. I saw that you were in trouble and I knew that I had a better chance of surviving then you did. I just did what I felt was right. You don't owe me anything for it." replied Clark honestly.

Sam laughed happily before responding. "You're like a regular knight in shinning amour Clark. You go off and save somebody's life while risking your own and then you brush off the praise as if it was your duty to do it and nothing more. That's what entitles you to my gratitude and friendship Clark. You don't feel that your owed it, your not arrogant and you don't let it go to your head. You're the perfect gentleman and noble to a fault." Said Sam with a big smile.

Clark smiled at her before thanking her warmly for her words and the two settled into a comfortable conversation about random things as they got to know each other slightly. Clark asked about his friends and how they were doing to which Sam told him that they were fine and that since he was doing better she would see that he could be moved into the room that was being prepared for the three of them tonight instead of tomorrow morning.

Over the next couple of hours they got to know each other at Sam's request and she told him that she hoped that he would stay in touch once he was better and able to leave. Clark for his part had agreed and had began asking questions about what had happened and how they had gotten wherever they were now. This had led to a conversation about the items in question being classified. She had quickly assured him that she would talk to the General on his behalf to see about getting him clearance so that he could at least know why he was hurt.

As the conversation wrapped up Sam looked down at the obviously blood soaked bandages and her face darkened with sorrow. "Let me change these for you Clark. They need to be changed and since you saved my butt back there I think I owe you the help." Said Sam as she grabbed the roll of bandages off the counter.

Clark froze. Only one thought crossed his mind and that was just how royally screwed he was. Thinking quickly Clark smiled at her before responding. "Really that's fine Sam you don't need to do that. I'm sure somebody else will be in here at some point to do It." said Clark as he tried to get her to drop the idea without it being obvious.

"Forget it Clark. I'm helping you with this and that's final. You're too damn noble for your own good. No sit still and let me take these bandages off." Said Sam with a laugh and Clark just sighed. There was nothing he could do. If he did anything to stop her it would just be suspicious. Resigning himself to his fate Clark sat still as Sam removed the bandages and just as he had expected she jumped backwards in surprise.

"That's impossible. I saw your wounds. There were far more then those and that cut on your check and back were twice the size. It's just not possible for wounds to heal that fast." Said Sam looking wide eyed at the boy. Clark chuckled nervously at her. "Yeah I guess I failed to mention that I'm not only hard to hurt but I heal fast too." said Clark off handedly trying to make it sound like it was no more important then what type of breakfast cereal he had in the morning.

Sam nodded numbly for a moment before throwing away the old bandages and beginning to wrap him up with great difficultly since she only had one hand. Between the two of them it took nearly twenty minutes to wrap him up and nearly a half dozen tries. Finally when she was finished she bid him good bye and the conversation wrapped up with Sam promising to send somebody to escort him to the room with his friends in a few minutes.

* * *

Clark followed the sergeant down the halls as they walked towards the private suite that had been setup for him and his friends for the night. He had been told by Sam that his mother and his friend's parents were going to be contacted to let them know that the three of them were alright and that they would be returning in a day or two after they were finished healing. They would be allowed to contact whoever they liked tomorrow after they had been debriefed about the situation and signed some non disclosure documents apparently or at least that was what he had been told.

After another five minutes of walking down the various halls of the base the sergeant came to a stop in front of a door with two guards standing out front. Clark made a mental note of the fact that they were in fact under guard and his concerns rose further. It was true that his talk with Sam had calmed him to some extent. She seemed to genuinely want to be his friend and was very grateful for his help. Even so she was only a Major and didn't have the authority to do anything for them really. He couldn't help but think that they were being treated more like prisoners then guests. He only hoped that he could sort this out without having to use his powers to break them out. It was bad enough that they knew about his two defensive powers.

If he had to do that then his friends would be on the run just like he was likely to be and he could never forgive himself if that happened. He had already given himself to the realization that his fate was sealed. The military knew about two of his abilities already and they had a blood sample. It was extremely unlikely at this point that he could talk his way out of this. All he could hope was that he could get his friends out of this without having to resort to force.

When the door opened Clark walked inside to find Pete sitting up in bed staring at the wall blankly with a sandwich in his hand and a bottle of coke on the night table beside him. Lana was lying in bed asleep to his right which surprised him slightly but he imagined she must be tired after everything that had happened. Clark looked over at the table in the room and saw that there was some food there for them. He quickly made his way over to the table as the door shut and locked behind him. Clark smiled at Pete as he looked up at the sound of the door opening and his eyes came back into focus before lighting up brightly. A moment later he was on his feet and giving him a one armed hug while laughing.

"Ha… I should of known it would take more then a bunch of over grown punching bags to keep my man Clark Kent down for long." Laughed Pete as he sat down at the table beside Clark after grabbing his coke from the night stand. As Clark began eating he stole glances towards Pete who was being far too quite for his liking. The silence stretched for another ten minutes or so before Clark had finally had enough. Finishing off his sandwich Clark sighed and spun to look at Pete.

"Alight spill it man. I know something is bothering you. You can't hide this stuff from me. I can read you like a book. We've known each other since we were like primary school. Now start talking." Ordered Clark. Pete looked at his best friend and sighed before casting his eyes downward.

"I'm sorry man. I failed you. If it wasn't for me and Lana you could have been out of there in no time and you never would have ended up here in the first place. What's more if we weren't here you could bust out of this place as if it was nothing. But most of all I failed to protect your secret or at least a part of it. I should have figured out a way to keep them from taking you away. Now they know that you're nearly indestructible, they probably have a blood sample from somewhere, and I had to tell them that you were a meteor freak just to keep them from finding out the truth. We are just some incredibly screwed man. And I just can't help but think that it's my fault." Said Pete as he lay his head down on the table.

Clark stared at his best friend for a moment before laughing. "Pete this is not your fault, and it's not Lana's fault. It was my decision to throw myself in front of that thing to save that woman. It was all my choice and I would make it again if I had to. You know me Pete. I'm not the type of person to just stand idly by and let somebody die when there is something I can do about it. If I do nothing then I'm as bad as all those people that we fight. As for telling them I'm a meteor freak that's fine. I don't think it will hold up long but at this point it doesn't matter. They know about my defensive skills now. They know about both my healing and my hard skin. They have a blood sample as well. I think it's safe to say that they'll find out that I'm not human soon enough. But I promise you Pete that before that happens, before they try to take me and turn me into some type of lab experiment. I will get both of you out of here." said Clark

"You two are the most important people in my life next to my mom. You accepted me for what I am and for that I am eternally grateful. You know they can't hurt me Pete, so don't worry about it. My only concern right now is that I get you two out of here and that I make sure they leave you both alone for the rest of your lives. Even if I have to stay with them by choice." finished Clark.

Pete's head shot up from the table and he glared at his friend. "Don't you think for a second that Lana or I will let you pull that self sacrificing bullshit for us Clark? I won't let you throw your life away for us. I don't care if I'm on the run for the rest of my life. You're my friend and you have saved my ass more times then I can count. I won't abandon you now that things have started to get rough and I know that if Lana was awake she would tell you the same thing. We love you man. Granted Lana loves you more then I do since I don't think of you in that way but you know what I mean" said Pete with laugh even as he tried to continue to glare at his friend.

"The point is man that we're in this together. None of this going in alone bullshit. If they try to use you as a science experiment I say you go all Kryptonian on their punk asses and bust the three of us out of here with that super speed your so famous for. Who cares if they chase us? There are worse things to do in life then run away with you best friend who just happens to be the most kick ass alien in the world." Said Pete and with that his glare dropped as he burst out laughing at the look on Clark's face.

The two stayed up for the next hour or so talking about the night's events and everything they had learned as well as going over their own viewpoints of what had happened during the attack. As they talked neither of them ever noticed the hidden microphones that were placed around the room and embedded within the dishes that they were eating off of. The following morning they would get one hell of a surprise.


	4. Welcome to the SGC

_**WARNING: The following chapter has both a pretty heavy make out scene (there is no intercourse in this scene) and a fairly graphic fight scene. For the sake of staying on the right side of the ratings I have increased this story to 'M' for Mature. Read at your own risk. You have been warned.**_

_**Timeline Error**__**: I would let to like my readers know that as of the time of this posting I have realized that I made a very stupid timeline mistake during my story. This story is supposed to start off during Season 7 of SG1. During this season according to the actual show they have NO IDEA about most of the Ancient technology such as the ZPM and attack Drones. In addition they have not found Atlantis or the earth outpost.**_

_**For the sake of fixing this complete screw up on my part I have made a small change in chapter 2. No point re-reading. I simply removed a line that makes mention to those two places (Atlantis, and earth outpost). I am also making it known right now that for the purpose of this story SG1 has come across both these Ancient technologies in the past and despite not knowing how to work them or exactly what they do they DO know what their general purpose is and just how important they are. **_

* * *

Well people here we are at chapter Four. Be sure to read the warnings and the timeline note above both are important. This chapter is now officially the longest chapter I have ever written at roughly 22,000 words. I hope that you all enjoy it.

So read on and be sure to

* * *

**Stargate SG1 – The Last Kryptonian**

Chapter Four: Welcome to the SGC

By Cybergades

* * *

Early the following morning Clark woke up to an unfamiliar warm wrapped around him and a sense of piece that he could never remember having before in his life. Despite the events of the previous night he could not bring himself to be concerned with anything other then the overwhelming sense of comfort that he currently felt. His eyes were still closed and he just couldn't bring himself to open them. Breathing deeply Clark was immersed in a somewhat familiar scent that he couldn't quite remember. It was an intoxicating mix of lavender and something else that he couldn't quite place but even so he knew that he had smelled it before.

He was brought out of his musing by movement beside him and felt a soft sigh brush across his cheek causing his eyes to shoot open in surprise. The sight that greeted him was perhaps one of the great sights that he had ever witnessed in his life. Laying half on top of him and half beside him was Lana with her arms wrapped tightly around his midsection and her head resting in the crock of his shoulder. Her eyes were open and she was staring at him lovingly with a look of pure bliss spread across her face for the entire world to see.

Clark smiled back at her and leaned down to place a gentle kiss on her lips which quickly turned into a much more passionate affair then he had intended. Not that he was complaining mind you. A few minutes later when they pulled apart Lana was staring at him with a completely different look. It was a look that he had never seen in her eyes before but one that set his heart to pounding. She was looking at him like a starving man would look at the finest cut of meat he had ever seen in his life and it woke something deep inside him that until now had been lying dormant. With his heart pumping a mile a minute Clark pulled her closer to him and sighed happily.

"I could get use to waking up like this you know Lana. Despite everything that happened yesterday and what I'm sure will happen today, knowing that I have you here with me makes it all seem so much easier to deal with. The day just looks brighter after waking up like that. Perhaps some day if I can get us out of this situation that is, I'll have the opportunity to spend the rest of my life waking up in exactly the same fashion." said Clark with all the sincerity in the world.

Lana stared wide eyed at his words for a few moments before rolling completely on top of him and pushing his shoulders down while hungrily devouring his lips with her own. She could feel an unquenchable fire burning inside of her that only he could help put out and his words had made her feel alive like she never had before. Knowing that he loved her so much that already he was hoping to spend the rest of his life with her just made the fire burn even hotter then it had before.

Clark gasped at the intensity of her kisses and moaned loudly as she proceeded to devour his lips with no sign of stopping. He could feel her silky smooth hands rubbing gently up and down his sides leaving a trail of goose bumps in their wake. He felt her tongue running lightly over his lips and without thought granted her access as while moaning into her mouth from the sheer intensity of it all. His hands seemed to have a life of their own as they moved under her nightgown and proceeded to run gently up and down her back trying desperately to explore every inch of her skin.

Lana broke the kiss after what seemed like an eternity just to come up for air and stare briefly into his eyes which seemed to be glowing a bright orange as he fought to control his heat vision. Her mind told her that they should stop, that she should stop but it was nothing more then a whisper in comparison to the animal inside of her that demanded she take what was hers. Without another thought she closed the distance between them again and savagely claimed his lips once more before trailing a line of molten kisses from the corner of his mouth, along his jaw line and then down his neck before sucking forcefully on his pulse point all the while rubbing her hands up and down his bare chest.

Coherent thought seemed to be fleeing him as Lana made her way back up his neck and started nibbling and sucking on his earlobe causing his eyes to roll back into his head from the sheer pleasure of it. In the back of Clark's mind he knew that if he didn't stop this right now they were going to end up making love right here in this very room while Pete was no further then in the next room and armed guards were standing just down the hall. Despite this knowledge Clark could not bring himself to stop the current course of events.

If he could read minds he would have realized that Lana's thoughts mirrored his own. One part telling her that this was not the time or place to be doing this while the other, more forceful part told her that consequences be damned, she was going to get what she wanted. So instead of stopping like he knew he should he just rolled over and pinned Lana to the bed before returning her ministrations. His lips landed almost of their own accord on the skin between her shoulder and her neck and he began to nibble lightly while gently rolling his tongue over the area causing Lana to throw her head to one side and begin moaning uncontrollably.

His hands moved from her back and proceeded to snake their way up her sides rubbing her lovingly on their journey up to her full breasts. Without even realizing what he was doing he cupped her through her bra causing Lana to buck into him sending a storm of sensations rushing through his body as she ground into him. The sensations were almost to much and he let out a long strangled moan into the crock of her neck.

Realizing the effect her action had on him Lana forcibly rolled herself back on top and pulled back from him trailing her hands all the way his chest to just above his waistband to his boxers before going back down and repeating the process. Once she reached the height of her position again she stared down at him for a moment with fire in her eyes and husky voice laced in absolute and unbridled desire. "You liked that did you Clark?" She extenuated her words but thrusting her hips forward causing their two centers to grind against each other again sending streaks of white hot pleasure coursing through each of them forcing them to moan out in appreciation.

Clark responded by slipping his hands under her bra and twirling her nipples between his fingers which caused her to let out a sound between a moan and a whimper before resuming her actions to see who would undo the other first. Deciding that she liked this game but that it was going a little to slowly for her tastes Lana began rocking her hips back and forth while applying just the right amount of pressure to send the two of them over the edge into a world of pleasure where absolutely all coherent thought left them and all that remained was the need to reach the end which was rapidly approaching both of them as their moans began to mix together into a chorus of lust filled sounds.

* * *

Pete had just finished drying himself off after his shower and was no brushing his teeth to prepare for the day that he knew was going to be even more strenuous then the last. The night before had been perhaps one of the longest of his lives but he was happy to say that he along with his two friends had come out of it alive and were stronger for it. The door to the bathroom was closed and the sink was running as he prepared to rinse his mouth out which was probably why he missed the sounds coming from the next room that clearly indicated something out of the ordinary was going on.

Finishing up in the bathroom, Pete dried his face and stepped out into the room only to become frozen to that very spot at the sight that greeted him. Not twenty feet away from him lay his two best friends. One on top of the other as the female of the pair rocked back and forth in a frantic motion while moaning loudly and running her nails roughly over her boyfriend's chest in an apparent effort to bring completion to their act. Meanwhile said boyfriend was meeting her strokes with his own thrusts and moaning in time with her while his hands were buried under her nightgown.

It took a few moments for Pete to get over the shock of it all before he could think of an action to take. Deciding to be tactful about it Pete coughed lightly at first. When that did not get any response he tried again, this time louder then the last, and then louder still before finally giving it up as a bad job and deciding to throw tactful out the window. "HOLY FUCK GUYS, STOP; LIKE NOW. I know you guys are a bunch of horny bastards but Jesus Christ I'm RIGHT HERE and we're in the middle of a FUCKING MILTARY BASE surrounded by people who want to figure out Clark's secret. Don't you think there are better times and CERTANTLY better places do be doing that? Like I don't know, maybe back HOME." Ranted Pete as he turned his back on the pair to give them the chance to compose themselves.

* * *

Pete's clearly aggravated and highly flustered voice reached both teens through their lust induced haze and cause them to cease their actions immediately and direct their attention towards said friend. They did not however move from their positions right away as neither seemed to comprehend at that moment the very embarrassing situation that they had been found in. Then it hit them. Clark looked up at Lana, Lana looked down at Clark and for a moment they blinked owlishly before springing apart as if they had been burned. Their skin suddenly took on the color of a cooked lobster as they realized what they had been doing and just how they had been caught.

Dozens of thoughts ran ramped through their minds moments after the haze had cleared and for a brief time their thoughts followed the same lust filled path until suddenly Lana's thoughts careened off in a different and far more negative direction causing all the blood to drain from her face and her eyes to fill with tears. Before either of the boys could find out what was wrong, or even notice that was something wrong Lana threw herself past Pete and into the bathroom before slamming the door and locking it.

She couldn't believe that she had just done that. With everything that was going on she just could not believe that she had been thinking of sex of all things. She had already talked with Pete earlier that morning about everything that had happened the night before while she had been sedated so she knew how screwed they were and here she was worrying about sating her unbelievable lust for Clark while he was probably going to have to face the preverbal firing squad today.

Just like that she felt the tears break free of their confines and began to stream down her face silently as she realized just what a horrible girlfriend she was. She had failed him, she hadn't been able to do anything but yell, and scream and get herself sedated and now she was nothing but a common tramp with her mind on sex instead of the more important things. The more she thought about it the more she realized she how horrible she was and how much she didn't deserve the man she loved and this realization just made her cry harder.

Lana's cries met Clark's super hearing and he paled as his thoughts shifted from how amazing that experience had all been to the possibility that she hadn't wanted it at all, that he had pushed her somehow towards it and that now she was regretting it. In an instant he was across the room and at the door trying to open it only to find it was locked. "Lana? Lana, please open the door. I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it just as much as I did. I didn't mean to hurt you. Please open the door Lana." Begged Clark as he knocked on the door.

Pete Looked back and forth between the now empty bed and the bathroom rapidly. He was trying desperately to get his mind around just what the hell had happened. One minute Clark and Lana were dry humping like there was no tomorrow and the next Lana had locking herself in the bathroom, while crying her eyes out and Clark was begging for forgiveness for something that Pete was fairly sure was a mutual act. What the hell was going on? While Pete tried to wrap his mind around these event's the world continued to move forward around him.

Hearing Clark's words through the door only made things worse for her. Now she was making him worry and forcing him to blame himself for her stupidity. She could just imagine how horrible he was probably feeling right now thinking that he had taken advantage of her. It was all her fault, she always screwed everything up and still he loved her. How he could possibly love her after all the times she had scorned him she would never know but he did.

Outside the door Clark was becoming more and more desperate. He wanted to badly to help her. he didn't know what the problem was anymore. At first he had thought that perhaps he had forced her into their act of passion but it just didn't make sense and the way she was acting didn't line up. Finally coming to the end of his rope and coming very close to losing it completely Clark seized the door knob and squeezed it tightly causing it to crumble in his hands from the sheer strength of his grip. A moment later he had popped the other side of the handle out and the door swung open to reveal a shaking Lana curled up tightly in the corner of the bathroom with her head leaning against the tub.

Stepping into the room quickly Clark sat on the ground beside Lana before wrapping his arms around her and hauling her to him in a tight embrace. Slowly Clark began rubbing small circles on her back in a calming motion while whispering sweet nothings into her ear. He couldn't for the life of him figure out what had happened. One minute they had been in the process of spiraling towards their deepest and darkest desires and the next she was breaking down. He knew that this all must have been hard for her with everything that had happened in the past twenty four hours but he had thought she was handling it. Regardless of what the cause he knew that he needed to calm her down before he could figure out what was wrong.

Finally after several long minutes Lana calmed down and clutched to him as if he was her only life line. Clark continued to hold her close and rub her back gently in a soothing manner while beginning to speak softly into her ear. "What's wrong Lana? Why are you crying baby? Everything is going to be fine. We're going to get out of here, I promise. You know all about me now and so you must know that nothing in this base can hold me back. If it comes down to it I'll bust us out of this tin can and we'll be half way to Smallville before they even know were missing. Nobody is going to hurt you. I won't let them. We're going to spend the rest of our lives together and nothing is going to keep us apart." said Clark as he placed a few soft kisses on her cheeks, and then her forehead before finally kissing her softly on the lips. Into that kiss Clark put all of his love, all of his feelings, in an effort to make her realize just how important she really was to him. He continued to stare down at her with concern filled eyes even after she failed to respond. It was obvious that she was lost in thought.

Lana lay on top of Clark with her face buried in the crock of his neck and her lips still tingling from the kiss she had received. God she loved him and he loved her so much. But how could she possibly be with him when he deserved so much better then her. She had only just gotten him back; he had just found the courage to tell her his secret and to finally let her into his life only to have all this stuff happen.

It just wasn't fair. Every time something good happened for the two of them fate found a way to keep them apart and she hated it. She wanted so badly to be there for him, to hold him in her arms and tell him that everything would be alright. That she would stay with him always and they would have a lifetime of fun together now that there weren't any secrets standing between them. She wanted so desperately to be strong for him this time instead of the other way around but she couldn't help but think that she was being selfish and tying him down to her when he could have so much better.

Only now she was finding out just how hard it was to be strong. So many things threatened to break her composure, to send her spiraling into the depths of despair and fear. She felt like even the slightest push would undo her completely. She couldn't possibly understand how Clark dealt with these feelings everyday. To know that you wanted somebody so bad, that you loved them so much but that they were better off without you. It was so hard to imagine the things that he must have had to endure for all those years knowing that he couldn't be close to anyone because of the secret that he had to keep. She had always brushed it off as being so insignificant and she had hated him for keeping it from her. He had told her it was dangerous to know and not one hour after she found out she had ended up watching him battle aliens and then ended up in a military base full of people who could find out his secret and who had apparently already started well down that path.

Now she couldn't forgive herself for how she had treated him all those years, for the things she had said to him all the times that he had refused to tell her. Now that she realized just how he had been suffering she couldn't decide if she should fight for what she wanted and stick with him or if she should let him go so that he could have what he deserved instead of what she wanted. The thought suddenly struck her that they could take him away from her before she even got to make that choice. She didn't think she could ever make it up to him, but she knew that she was willing to spend the rest of her life trying to make up for the way she had treated him over the years. She would spend her life doing everything she could to relieve some of the pressure that he had on his shoulders just like she knew Pete would and had been for years now.

So the question was; what was the best way to make it up for him. Should she step aside and help him find somebody who was truly worthy of his love and devotion. She loved him with all her heart and it was that love that made her wonder if she was dooming him to a life with somebody that was so far below him. Then again he had loved her for as long as either of them could remember. She had been furious with him all those years when he had presumed to make her decisions for. All the time saying that it was 'for her about her own good'. Could she really do that to him as well? Who was she to say who he should love? The only solution she could think of was to leave it to him. If he truly wanted her then she was his and his alone. God she would give anything for that to be his answer but she wouldn't force it on him. She loved him to much for that.

She was brought out of her thoughts by another soul searing kiss from the man she loved with all her heart and soul. She looked up into his eyes only to see him smiling down at her, his eyes filled with concern. God how easy it was to become lost in those eyes. She thought she might just drown in the depths of the love that she could see within them. She smiled back as she felt hope spread through her entire being. He loved her so much. Maybe, just maybe she could be selfish just this once and the two of them could be happy together.

Again thought she felt the doubt creeping into her mind and heart despite her heart telling her that this was right. Pete had been holding this secret by himself for years now and he still had this overwhelming sense of confidence. It startled her to think of just how weak she really was. It made her sad actually to think that she had so little will power. If she was this weak then how was she ever going to help Clark? Did she even deserve someone as strong and caring as he was? He was literary what every girl dreamed up. He was a loving person, passionate about what he believed in, strong in will and body, and of course it didn't hurt that he was just plain HOT. What right did she have to take somebody so utterly perfect when she was ready to crack under the pressure he lived with on a daily basis after less then a day?

From outside the room Pete had been following the situation and seemed to sense where her thoughts were going. Just like always he knew exactly what to say. He and Clark were a lot alike in that sense. "Lana I may be way out in left field here but I get the feeling that you're beating yourself up over a supposed lack of strength or self character. You know, I wasn't always this confident in my ability to support Clark. The day I found out about him I nearly lost it. I did almost exactly what you did back at the Talon only I left him hanging for a day or so before sorting it out. The next couple of weeks were really hard for me after that. I wanted to help him but I just felt like I wasn't good enough. Clark finally ended up setting me straight and so now I'm going to do the same to you." stated Pete as he looked towards Clark with a smile on his face. Clark for his fast was looking between the two as if they had both lost their minds. They had never let him down, neither of them, and he knew for a fact that they never would. It was utterly ridiculous in his mind for them to even worry about such a thing.

"You are more then qualified to help Clark. He loves you and I mean he really loves you. If your little stunt in there didn't prove that to you then think about this. This guy has had it bad for you for years and while at first I think it might have been just a crush on the girl next door I can tell you honestly that it quickly turned into a whole lot more. For that very reason you are better equipped and far better qualified then anybody else to help him. You have no idea how bad it hurt him to be separated from you. To know that something like his secret kept him apart from you. He is probably going to kick my butt for telling you all this stuff but you really need to understand that you are the only person for him. I swear he would go to the ends of the earth for you and back. The few times that you two were truly together I had never seen him so happy or so powerful. I thought for sure he could do anything so long as he had you at his side. As long as he had you he was unstoppable." Pete laughed slightly before continuing.

"No one has ever had the power to hurt Clark like you have and likewise no one has ever had the power to help him like you do. That will never change. The few times that you really stuck it to him were perhaps the only times that I thought he might just give up. Likewise those few times when he had you as his own were the times that he seemed larger then life, like he would take on the world if he had to and nothing could stand in his way."

"What I'm getting at Lana is that not only would anybody feel the way you do right now after going through what we have, after hearing about something as incredible as what you did last night. But you also have something that nobody else ever will. You have his heart and now he has yours. If nothing else that alone makes you infinitely more helpful and valuable then I will ever be. You just need time to see that." Pete looked down at Lana as he finished and smiled happily at her before laughing at the deep blush that painted her cheeks as a result of his words.

"Anyways that's enough of the mushy crap for me. I've done my good deed for the year and from now on Clark can suck up to you to make you feel better." Said Pete as he laughed and went into the other room to give the two some privacy. Clark looked down at Lana with surprise evident in his eyes before a determined glint appeared in them and he held her tighter while he breathed in her scent. "You should never doubt how important you are to me Lana. I would do anything for you. There is nobody more qualified in the world to be my girlfriend or my partner. Between you, Pete, and Chloe I can't possibly go wrong in this world." Said Clark with sincerity in his voice.

Lana smiled up at him as tears of joy fell from her eyes. Only these two could squash her fears like they were nothing and make her feel like a fool for even thinking them. God she loved him so much. There was nothing she wouldn't do for him. Clark and Lana returned to the bedroom to get ready for the day and with the loved induced haze that had settled over her mind Lana completely missed the comment about Chloe.

* * *

Sam walked into the briefing room in a daze of sorts followed closely by Janet. The two of them had talked late into the night about their discovery of Clark's healing abilities and what it could mean for the world if they could find a way to reproduce the effects in others. Eventually the two of them had agreed to call it a night and here they were again early in the morning for the second briefing in the last twelve hours to go over everything they had discovered about Clark Kent and his friends. It seemed that things just got more and more interesting by the minute these days.

Taking her seat at the table she noticed Daniel sitting across from her with a stack of folders nearly a foot high. Each one was several inches thick and there were six in total, obviously one for each of them. It was plainly obvious that he had found a lot of information. She wondered if any of it would be as interesting as what she and Janet had dug up. A few moments later she looked up from the stack of folders to see the General walk out of his office and sit in his customary place at the end of the conference table.

"Ok people tell me what you've got." Ordered George as he looked around the table. Sam was about to speak up when to her surprise Jack beat her to it. "I wasn't able to find out much more then we already knew about Clark in regards to his capabilities however I do believe that I was able to get some valuable background data from Mr. Ross during our little chat last night. Things started out a little rough but I think I was able to break through to him there and get him to open up to me. He seems genuinely concerned for his friend's safety and seemed to think that he was betraying his trust by telling me but was willing to do with the understanding that he was hoping to find a way to help him with his injuries. When I was done I passed the information I got off to Daniel so that he could follow up with it in his list of things to explore." said Jack

"It seems sir that Smallville has been hit by two large meteor showers over the past sixteen years and that the meteor rocks which were involved in the shower have had an adverse affect on the town's population. I don't know the mechanics behind it but according to Ross the rocks have caused a genetic mutation within quite a few people who were exposed to the rocks during the actual storms. Both meteor showers were composed of the exact same kind of meteor rock. From what he told me the rock is distinguishable by the dark green crystals that are embedded inside of the rocks themselves.

According to Ross some of these mutations were physical while others were biological leaving the person to look normal but with abilities that nobody would have expected. A side affect apparently of these mutations is that the individuals affected generally go nutty and try to kill everything in site." continued Jack

"From what I was able to gather our boy Kent seems to be one of these meteor freaks as they've come to refer to them as. However unlike the majority of the other mutants they have run into Clark has been able to keep a level head and has used his powers to fight the rest of them while protecting his friends and family. He's a real hero type sir which explains his throwing himself in front of our big bad alien friend last night. His only power that Ross is aware of is defensive in nature. His skin is apparently near indestructible leaving him nearly unbeatable. According to Ross there have only been a handful of times that he has seen so much as a scratch on our boy Kent and never anything serious which tells me that either his powers kicked out on him or these alien dudes were some real bad asses." Finished Jack

The group nodded in understanding before Daniel started up. "Alright well I guess I should go next. If you will each take one of these folders, I'll be referring to them quite a bit during my presentation. I've printed off everything I could find and there's quite a lot actually. It seems that all three of them have been in the thick of things quite a few times in both Smallville and Metropolis. Some of this stuff just brings up a lot more questions then answers I'm afraid which seems to be the normal pattern for this kid."

"Anyways I started by following Clark's history from birth to when we met up with him and it seems that the abnormal in his case started from day one. As you can see according to what I was able to dig up Clark is adopted, There is no record of his biological parents what so ever. According to the records he was found abandoned in Smallville during the first meteor shower and was then adopted by Martha and Jonathan Kent. What's interesting is that Clark was the only adoption case that the adoption company used ever took part in. The firm opened its doors less then a week before the actual adoption took place and closed up shop less then six months later. After running through a laundry list of companies I was able to determine that the front man behind the company was one Lionel Luther of Luther Corp."

"Now what is really interesting about this is that Jonathan Kent has always been an avid anti-Luther supporter. I've included several articles and police reports that show time and time again that the two have been at odds. There appears to be a great deal of bad blood between them and yet he went to him for something as important as adopting a child. At any rate both his parents were upstanding members of the community until the death of his father around six months ago and his mother continues that tradition as the Kansas state Senator." Said Daniel. He paused for a moment to take a drink of water before continuing forward.

"With all that said Clark Kent appears to be a model citizen. He lived out his childhood living on the family farm and has lived next door to Lana Lang his entire life until she moved from her home to the apartment above her coffee shop in town. The first time that Clark appeared in the news was about five years ago when he saved Lex Luther from drowning in a river after said boy lost control of his car and slammed it throw the railing on a bridge and into the water below. The article states that Clark was nearly hit in the accident but it also mentions that Lex thought he had actually hit him. Based on what we know now I believe this to be a distinct possibility. The pair became fast friends after this until a little over a year ago when things started to get tense between them. their friendship is currently on the rocks."

"Clark attended Smallville High where he got excellent grades, he played football for a year and got offered a football scholarship which he turned down. He was involved in the school paper most of his school career with his good friend Chloe Sullivan being the editor. Now Clark shows up dozens of more times over the next five years in similar newspaper articles to the crash all with him saving the day in one way or another. By the sounds of it he's become somewhat of a town hero to some extent. Every article I could find is within the folder you each have so, feel free to look them over at your convenience."

The group stared avidly at Daniel as he continued to talk. By this time Daniel was starting to get excited and it clearly showed on his face and in his body language. "Now here is where the most exciting piece of news I was able to dig up comes into play. A couple years ago Clark and his friend Pete are reported to have found a long lost cave. The cave is claimed by the natives in the area as a being sacred and there's a big fight over who it belongs to since Luther Corp actually owns the land."

"Now there were a great number of articles about this particular event and I viewed quite a few of them in full before skimming through the rest. As I was skimming the last few articles I came across one which had a much better quality photo then the rest. It was the school paper actually and it seems that Clark was able to get a great picture because of his status with the elders of the tribe. At first I was going to discard the article like I did with most of the others which you will find in the folder but something caught my eye on this one." Said Daniel as he picked up the remote to the view screen and turned it on after dimming the lights.

"The image on your left is an image from the Ancient database we downloaded at the outpost we visited several weeks ago. The image on the right is from the article in question. It shows a shot of one of the walls deep inside the cave where the other reporters were not allowed. Apparently the local aboriginals claim that it depicts a story of a visitor from the stars who came to earth as a friend to their people. The story goes on to explain say that he became friends with a man from earth and they were hardly ever separated. The long and short of it is that the two part ways on bad terms when the man from earth tries to come between his friend and a woman from the tribe causing them to end up as mortal enemies. The story itself is not really the interesting part although the fact that it depicts a visitor from the stars is pretty interesting. What I found quite interesting is that many of the people within the native community insisted that Clark was the man from the stars."

"At first I thought that it was nothing more then an interesting story but one of the characters on the wall caught my attention and I decided to look at it closer. Within this photo you will find several matching symbols from the image on the left. The image on the left shows a series of symbols which are displayed across the space ship we found in the Ancient outpost. That in of itself would be really exciting but wait until you see this. I almost missed it because even with the good quality of the shot the indentations are easy to miss. I was zoomed in to take a look at one of the smaller symbols when I caught sight of this out of the corner of my eye. If you zoom in several times here you can make out another set of symbols which are almost invisible. They are maybe a quarter of an inch in size and barely distinguishable because they are engraved instead of painted. They are even harder to catch because they are placed around the original set of painted symbols which draw the attention from the subtle engravings. These second set of symbols I can translate and I can translate them because their written in Ancient" finished Daniel

Jack who had been sipping on his glass of water sprayed it across the table in surprise. "What? How is that possible? The Ancient outpost we found made it look like they had never met before. How in the hell could there be writings from both races in the same place and that close together if they had never met?" inquired Jack. It seemed that everybody else was just as interested in knowing including Daniel.

"Actually Jack I have a theory about that. We know that the Ancients left this area a long time more then ten thousand years ago because they were losing a war in their home galaxy. I know from what little I can remember from my time of being ascended that they did in fact return to this galaxy after loosing the war. They came back here to live out the rest of their lives and work on ascending. If this was the case then it's distinctly possible that the two races met upon the Ancients return and form an alliance. The Ancients knew they were a dieing race, they knew they were going to leave this plain of existence for all eternity and wanted to leave something behind, something that would help others in their battles against the various threats in the galaxy. They did not want their vast knowledge to be lost."

"That is the only solution I can think of. It would make sense since the outpost we found had been abandoned during the war and since they came back without any intention to stay in this plain of existence they would not have reclaimed the many outposts that they previously had. we already know that they left many repositories of data. It's possible that this was just one more way for them to ensure that they lived on. The question is why these writings are on earth. Was it of a significant importance for the Ancients or for the Kryptonians or perhaps both? What is the significance of earth to these races and of that particular location? I can't tell you what the symbols actually say for the Kryptonian writings but I can tell you that the few Ancient symbols I have been able to make out speak of an alliance to preserver the combined knowledge of both their races. It seems that both races realized they were coming to an end and they decided to jointly leave behind their knowledge to somebody. It makes little sense to me at this point but I imagine that once we know for sure what the Kryptonian writing says and once I have been able to read all the Ancient writings within the cave that we will have a better idea of the full story. It would be worth looking at this cave sometime soon so that I can determine what else is said." Concluded Daniel

"Ok with all that said I'd like to talk about his friends for a bit. Clark has a long history with three people outside of his parents. These three people are Pete Ross, Lana Lang, and Chloe Sullivan. Now apparently Clark, Pete, and Chloe have been friends since primary school. They have been inseparable and in recent years have become a regular crime fighting trio. According to what I've been able to dig up Chloe Sullivan is known for her investigative reporting skills which oddly enough tended to deal with these meteor freaks of sorts more often then not. As best I could tell she would sniff them out, do the research on any clues they came up with, and generally nail down the specifics of each case. At which point Pete and Clark were the muscle. They would actually get into the thick of it and solve the cases, often ending up fighting with various meteor freaks. I think that we can assume that if Pete and Lana area aware of this secret of his that Chloe is as well and that with how close they all are that Chloe will be hearing about everything that has happened to the three of them regardless of what we do."

"Chloe's father is an ex-employee of Luther Corp and her Mother is unknown. There's nothing else of interest to mention in her case really. Pete Ross's mother is a judge while his father is a businessman out of Smallville."

"Lana Lang is actually the more recent of the three friends. She has been Clark's neighbor for his entire life until a couple years ago when she moved out of her old house and into her own apartment. She runs her own coffee shop in Smallville called the Talon and her apartment is located above it's premises. The two have an extensive history of a love and hate relationship apparently and based on what we've heard recently I think we can assume this was a result of the secret that Clark had been keeping from her in regards to his abilities. Unlike the other two Lana has rarely been involved in the meteor freak episodes or rather rarely on the fighting side. She has however on numerous occasions been a victim of these cases and has always come out alive, most likely as a result of Clark's efforts. While I do not have any definitive evidence to it I believe that they are now in fact a couple." Finished Daniel.

"The only other thing of importance to mention is that we are likely to have some problems keeping this under wraps unless we bring them on board with us and let them know what's going on. At this point we have stepped into a hornets nest frankly. Clark's mother is a US senator and reported to be quite over protective since her husband's death. We can only assume that she knows of Clark's gift or gifts and will do everything possible to protect him and his rights. Pete's mother is a US judge and is likewise quite protective of her son. Between the two of them we have problems. All three teens are good friends with Chloe Sullivan who now works at the Daily Planet in Metropolis and is reported to be just as protective of her friends. If we tried to hide this from them it is likely to wind up coming back to haunt us."

"Last but certainly not least is Lex Luther. Mr. Luther is reported to have been good friends with Clark for many years after Clark saved his life during his first year of high school. While this friendship is reported to be somewhat strained now he is more then likely to come to his aid all the same especially since he is on good terms with Clark's girlfriend Lana Lang. These four people combined spell a security nightmare for us and you can be sure that if we leave them with nothing they will make sure the events of last night get out in one form or another." And with that Daniel shut off the screen and sat down to leave the rest to think over his points.

General Hammond sighed as he rubbed at his temples. It was only ten in the morning and he was already wishing he hadn't got up today. "Ok Doctor Fraiser what were you able to come up with." inquired George. Janet looked up from the folder in front of her to address those at the table. "Well sir what I have dug up answers some interesting questions but just as Daniel's has it brings up more questions then answers. I also believe that it brings into question some of what both Daniel and Jack were able to find." Stated Janet

"As I reported yesterday Mr. Kent's skin is nearly indestructible. I had obtained a couple of samples of blood and ran several tests on them last night while studying a sample under the microscope. The first thing I can tell you is that I am almost positive he did not get these powers from the meteor rocks. I have no doubt that they have in fact caused mutations in other people but his were not obtained that way. Had his powers come from the meteors then his sample should have responded in a positive manner to the radiation that the rocks give off or it should have given no response what so ever. Contrary to both these points the sample actually suffered a strong negative reaction of sorts to the radiation which caused the cells to begin breakdown. One of the scientists brought in a sample of meteor rock to my lab last night while we were working and it actually reacted to the blood sample. Both the cells and the rock itself began putting off a faint florescent green glow of sorts. Once they were far enough part both went back to normal." Commented Janet.

"After all the tests that we ran I have to conclude that Clark Kent is not a normal teenager. While his blood sample closely resembles that of a human there are key differences in both the DNA structure and the cells. The body is capable of extremely high rates of healing as a result of a special type of white blood cell that allows for the creation of new cells of any type within the body so long as the cell that it samples is healthy. The white blood cells are also far more aggressive then ours and there are nearly three times the number of white blood cells then is normal. Without being able to examine him further I can't say conclusively that he is not from earth but I can tell you that at the very least he is far more advanced then any of us. My professional opinion is that he's from another world." Finished Janet

The group as a whole stared at Janet for several long moments before Sam spoke up. "Sir I tend to agree with Janet. I don't believe that Clark is from earth. The feeling that I reported yesterday is defiantly caused by him and I have never felt this way around a human before. In fact I have never felt specifically this way around anyone. I do believe that he was raised here but I think that it is more likely that he came to earth around the time of the first meteor shower and that based on the reaction the meteors have with him that the two are closely related in some manner. With that said I do not believe for a second that he is a threat to us. I got to talk to him for several hours last night and he is nothing but a gentleman. If anything I think he might be a good asset to the program someday and I believe that we could trust him with this secret. The only other thing I want to point out is that Janet is correct about his healing abilities. I changed his bandages last night before I left and when I removed them nearly forty percent of his wounds were gone, while the remaining ones were reduced in size by nearly half. If I am correct in my calculations I believe that by now he's probably fully healed from the attack he suffered last night." Commented Sam.

It seemed that everybody was getting used to surprises now as they all simply looked mildly shocked at this statement. Nothing about this kid had been normal since the moment they met him, why should it start now. Sam for her part didn't think that there ever had been anything normal about him. It was obvious that he tried very hard to be normal but it just wasn't his thing.

"Well I suppose that leaves you Teal'c. Did our security personnel report anything?" inquired George as he looked towards Teal'c. "Indeed General Hammond. Security reported nothing of consequence. Our surveillance did however pick up several intriguing conversations between the time that Clark Kent was shown to his room last night and the time that I picked up the tapes this morning. I have given them to Daniel Jackson so that they can be displayed for us on the monitor." Stated Teal'c in his usual monotone voice.

For the next hour or so the group of six watched as the conversation between Clark and Pete was played back from the previous night revealing once and for all that he was in fact not from earth while at the same time revealing several more of his powers to the group while the two discussed ways that they could break out of the base if they needed to. They watched as Clark assured his friend that regardless of what happened he would ensure that both Pete and Lana were able to escape even if he had to give himself to the military only to be shot down by the brash teen that glared angrily at his friend and yelled at him for even considering sacrificing himself for them.

Once the conversation from the night before finished they quickly rolled through the tape where they spotted Lana climbing into bed with Clark and snuggling close only to be awoken several hours later by Pete where the two recapped the previous days events over a light breakfast before Lana crawled back into bed with Clark and Pete went to grab a shower. Daniel's eyes bugged out of his head as nearly ten minutes later Lana and Clark were beginning to get into the mood and the room as a whole looked away in embarrassment as the scene was move forward to play the discussion between Pete and Lana followed by a similar discussion by Clark and Lana about her place in the grand scheme of things. All in all the tape revealed more then they knew beforehand and answered quite a few of the questions they had while raising new ones.

The group as a whole stared in shock at the video screen where a minute earlier they had finished watching the surveillance. The tape had proven to them that firstly Clark was in fact to the best of his knowledge the last of his race. He was a Kryptonian, a member of the very race that they had stumbled across not more then a few weeks ago and the very same race from whom the pilot they had recovered belonged to. It answered so many questions and yet it brought up several more important ones. The most important of them being what did they do now.

He was an alien whom had been living on earth for 16 years now and if what they had heard was correct had the power to bring earth to its knees himself. He could be both a powerful ally and a powerful enemy depending on how they worked with him. He was one enemy the SGC could not afford to make. The question still remained though what should they do. There were so many possibilities. They could fill him and his friends in on the program so that they understood what was going on and then swear them to secrecy which would contain the problem and ensure that he was not a threat. They could ignore him completely and hope that he left them alone and went back to his life or they could bring him into the program and ask for his help.

Sam watched the group as a whole before she decided to speak up. She didn't know what everybody else thought but she knew what her opinion was based on the time she had spent with Clark the day before. He was an asset that should not be wasted. "Sir I think we should introduce him to the program and request his assistance. I know he's still a teenager but I think that he's worth the risk. He can probably help us answer a lot of the questions we have about his race, their capabilities, and the connection with the Ancient's. Beyond that I believe that if we let him in and trust him that he will be a valuable asset and an incredibly ally in the field." Suggested Sam.

The General seemed to consider it for a moment and then turned towards the table as a whole before addressing them. "Colonel you've heard Major Carter's suggestion what are your feelings on the situation." Inquired the General. Jack looked towards the General and then back towards Sam before stating his answer. "Honestly sir while I don't believe that he should just be thrown into the program and put on an SG team I do believe that he should be at least introduced to the program. If what Daniel says about these guys is true then even just one of them would be an asset we would be fools to waste. With that said I think we should be very careful how we treat him. He cares most for his friends and family and puts himself last. If we step over the line or try to manipulate him we liable to find ourselves with more trouble then we can handle." Said Jack.

"I would agree with O'Neill General Hammond. Clark Kent is an honorable warrior with many strengths. To waste his strength would be foolish when we could use his aid to defeat the Goa'uld." Commented Teal'c.

The room as a whole turned to Daniel who had been oddly silent during this whole conversation. They had all expected him to be the first to preach about the benefits of having such an ally on their team and yet he had remained silent. Daniel looked up from his files and looked at each of the people in turn before turning to the General. "I believe that the decision should be his General. I think that what we know now tells us that it was him that killed the first alien we fought and nearly killed the second. In addition he defeated the alien from the first craft by himself despite being caught unawares. He obviously has a fare amount of combat experience even if it's not in the same sense as we have. He would be an asset to have but ultimately the decision has to be his. The tape made it clear that his concern is his freedom and that of his friends. If he walks away we need to let him or we will only create an enemy in him. One who will do whatever it takes to protect those he cares for. I for one would not want to be on his bad side. With that said even if he does refuse there is a possibility that he would agree to a consultant position that did not require him to go off world and thus leave his family behind. Even in that capacity we could learn a lot from him." Finished Daniel before going back to his files.

Once again General Hammond looked at SG1 closely before making his decision. He only hoped he wouldn't regret it. "The way I see it we solve two problems at once by bringing him into the program. Firstly we have an inside source to the Kryptonian people and their technology. With or without this connection to the Ancients, he would still be a valuable asset. Secondly we avoid the security leak. If he's brought in on the program we have a better chance of keeping him under control and keeping the information contained then if he is out there on his own. With that said I believe that we should do everything in our power to make him a part of the SGC even if on just in a consultancy position. With his gifts he would prove to be an invaluable ally against the Goa'uld." Stated George.

"I need to talk to the president about the situation before we move forward any further but either way I believe it's time we have a talk with our young Mr. Kent. SG1 I'd like you to retrieve Clark and his friends from their room up on level 17 and escort them back here to the briefing room. By the time you get back I should have an answer from the President as to what direction we should move." Ordered George. General Hammond stood and dismissed the others before turning back to his office. He just knew today was going to be a long day.

* * *

SG1 watched as General Hammond left towards his office to consult with the President on the current course of events. Each member of the group had their own thoughts and concerns about the current situation but ultimately their thoughts led back to the same point. To all of them Clark could be the answer to tipping the tides in what was a loosing battle with the Goa'uld.

Jack was the first to snap out of his thoughts and brought the others to attention as he stood and headed for the door. Glancing back over his shoulder he realized that Janet had already left and Teal'c was watching the other two as if he was wondering who to follow. "Are you guys coming or what?" questioned Jack as he glanced back over his shoulder. The others quickly realizing that they had just been sitting there stood as once and headed after their commander.

As they made their way towards the elevator shaft that would take them up to Level 17 Daniel voiced what everyone had been thinking. "I wasn't completely honest with myself back there and I think you all knew it. I believe everything I said but with that said I also think that this is an opportunity that we can't pass up. I do believe that we can't force Clark into anything but I think that we need to do everything we can to make him feel that this is the route that he wants to go. No matter the cost we need to gain his assistance. Every fiber of my being tells me that he is the key to winning this war with the Goa'uld and that we need him far more then he needs us. I don't think that we can just take a passive approach at this. We need to be proactive and work to gain his trust and ultimately his friendship. Because I think that will be the key to winning him over. if he considers us friends then his morals will force him to help us in order to protect us. Furthermore if we can convince him that the Goa'uld pose a serious threat to his friends and family I believe he will act proactively to ensure their safety." Said Daniel

Sam looked over at Daniel and nodded her head in agreement before voicing her own opinions. "I agree Daniel. I learned a lot about Clark last night when we talked, he's a very passionate person when it comes to his beliefs and his loved ones. While I refuse to be any part of manipulating him I do agree that what will ultimately sway his decision will be his desire to protect those he loves. I for one am genuinely interested in being called his friend for no other reason then I believe his friendship to be valuable. He is a very interesting person and not just because he's an alien. He's so much more complex that I would have given him credit for when we first met and he seems to understand that there are some things that are bigger then ones self. If the rest of you feel the same way that I believe we can convince him to help us. Although I think we'll have a hard time separating him from his friends." Observed Sam.

The conversation seemed to trail off as everyone was left to their own thoughts about what had just been said. For the next ten minutes or so the group remained quite as they traversed the area between the briefing room and their guest's quarters on level 17.

* * *

General Hammond sat in his office speaking with his commander and chief, the President of the United States of America. He had only just finished explaining what they knew about the boy and his friends as well as what they suspected and now he found himself discussing their next course of action.

"Yes Mr. President I understand that a boy of his capabilities would be extremely valuable in the program. I must however agree with Doctor Jackson's assessment of the situation. We can not force him into this. If we push him we are likely to either ruin any chances what so ever of having his help now or in the future, or we will anger him in which case we will have far greater problems then the Goa'uld to deal with." stated the George.

The General listened carefully as the President listed what he believed to be their possibilities before he cut in to stop the current train of thought. "I do not believe that would be a wise course of action sir. Handing over the boy to the NID will only guarantee that we have an enemy. So much as the smallest slip up could allow him to free himself and once that was done he would very likely lash out at his captors. His greatest concern as far as we can tell other then not being able to protect his friends and family is that he will be captured and experimented on. Doing so would guarantee that we alienate him and destroy all chances of a relationship with him. Besides that we do not know how fast the meteor rock works on him. For all we know it takes a few minutes to take enough effect to slow him down during which time he could kill every person on this base if he felt it necessary. I believe our best chance is to offer an alliance and explain what is at stake. If he believes his friends are in danger he will act accordingly to protect them." commented George.

There was a silence on the other side of the line before the president's voice returned. "Very well General, I'll trust in your judgment on this fact. But I want to make myself clear. From what you've told me about this boy he is essentially the greatest weapon we have ever come across in the fight against the Goa'uld. I want him on SG1 and out in the field where he can make a difference. Whatever it takes General. I don't care what he asks for, you make it happen. You have my permission to accept any terms you deem as viable. If he cares about his friends and family so much then use that to our advantage. Shower them with benefits just as we would him and we may find that he warms up to our suggestions. Make your country proud General. Make this happen." Commanded the President.

General Hammond briefed a sigh of relief in knowing that he had driven things back to where he wanted them. The idea of the NID getting their hands on the boy was a nightmare. And to think it had come so close to being a reality. "Yes Mr. President. I'll do my best." And with that the line went dead. George leaned back in his chair with a tired sigh. This day just got better and better didn't it. By the time this was all finished he was going to need a vacation. Why oh why did he agree not to retire.

* * *

SG1, lead by Daniel entered the guest suite to find the group just sitting down to eat a light lunch of what appeared to me a variety of sandwiches. Deciding to grab onto what he felt was a good opportunity to talk to them without their guards being up Daniel called their attention to him with a small cough. When the teens turned to look at their visitors Daniel decided to make his move.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your lunch guys but I was hoping you would join us instead. The General wanted to talk to you and we were just about to grab some lunch ourselves. I promise it will be better then what you would have gotten here. You guys can have anything you want. Just ask and the chef will make it up. What do you say?" inquired Daniel as he smiled politely at the group of teens.

Clark looked at Lana and Pete who both shrugged their shoulders to say that they didn't mind before dragging his attention back to the group that stood before them. He recognized all of them although he only knew one of them in person. Deciding that it was a good opportunity to get some answers and that he needed to find out their intentions anyway if he was going to decide what to do next Clark nodded his head in agreement before standing with his friends and walking forwards.

Seeming to realize that this was all the answer he was going to get at the time Daniel turned and followed the rest of SG1 out of the room with the three teens following close behind as they made their journey back towards the briefing room they had just come from.

* * *

Ten minutes later they arrived back in the briefing room to find the General already seated in his customary position with a series of folders spread out in front of him. Making their way forward SG1 took their seats at the other end of the table opposed to their normal seats beside the General. Clark sat on the General's left with Lana seated beside him while Pete seated himself on the General's right with Sam beside him.

Seeing that everybody was seated the general decided it was time to move things forward. "Miss Lang, Mr. Ross, Mr. Kent… I'm Major General George Hammond, the commanding officer of this facility. I must apologize for the way you've been treated so far. Everything that goes on in this facility is top secret and as such it has been very difficult for us to have you here. It's not often that we have civilians on this base and you happen to have found us in the middle of a serious situation."

"I'm sure that you all have a lot of questions as do we. I assure you that you are not in any trouble and that once we complete our talk you will be free to leave should you so choose." The General was about to continue when he was cut off by Daniel. "Actually sir we had mentioned that we would be grabbing lunch while we talked. I believe they had their hearts set on something special. Perhaps we should take a short break to place our orders with the chef before we continue." Suggested Daniel as he smiled over at the three teens before directing his attention back at the General.

George nodded his head to Daniel to tell him he agreed with the idea and Daniel turned back to Clark and the others with an expecting look on his pace. Lana looked back and forth between her two friends before deciding that she would go first and get the ball rolling. "I could really go for a tuna salad. You know with noodles and vegetables mixed in with the tuna and pepper. If that's ok I mean." Requested Lana. Pete seeing that Daniel had agreed to that so easily decided to throw in his own order which Clark mimicked. "I guess I'd like a cheeseburger with Lettuce, union, ketchup, and mustard on it and then a side of fries to go with It." finished Pete. The others quickly followed suit, ordering their own lunches as did the general before the Daniel went around asking what everybody wanted to drink. The teens ordered sprite all around while the others ordered a variety of drinks. All in all it took no more then a few minutes and they had their orders written down.

The General took the sheet of paper with their lunch orders and turned to the door where a guard stood on duty. "Airman, take this down to the officers mess and give it to the chef with orders to have it all sent up as soon as it's ready." Commanded George as he handed over the piece of paper. The guard nodded before taking the paper and leaving the room. For the first time since they arrived Lana actually felt like she was being treated like an adult. It was obvious in the way they were being talked to now that these people considered them as such and were prepared to be honest with them. It was a refreshing change to being treated like a child since the night before and being left in the dark.

After the guard had left Jack stood and closed the door before returning to the table and looking at the General expectantly. "Thank you Colonel. As I was saying I'm sure you all have questions that you want answered and likewise we have some of our own. As I said before Mr. Kent this facility is top secret and everything that goes on in here is as well. We are aware of your secret Mr. Kent and I want to assure you that we have every intention of keeping your confidences. Outside of the five of us there are only two other people who are aware of it. Those two people are Doctor Frasier whom you've all met and the President of the United States. What I'd like to do is have us all Sign non-disclosure agreements which will prevent us from discussing your details with anybody outside of the seven aforementioned people without your express permission and likewise will prevent you three from discussing anything you learn here or that is considered classified by the United States Government with anybody outside of this base without our express permission." Stated George.

Sam seemed to notice their hesitation and decided to add in her own understanding of the contract. "Clark by signing this contract your not saying that you agree to tell us anything your really just ensuring that we can't tell anybody what we already know while at the same time allowing us to tell you about what goes on in this base and explain what happened last night. Once it's signed I'm sure the General intends to have us go first so that you know what's going on and don't feel like your being pressured into anything." Explained Sam.

Lana leaned over towards Clark and placed her mouth near his ear before whispering softly. "Clark I think we should sign. If for no other reason it will allow us to get the answers we want and need while ensuring that whatever they believe they know about you goes no further then the seven people they mentioned. There's no obligation on our part to tell them anything and even if there was you could always bust us out of here before they could stop you. I think this is the best we can do right now." suggested Lana. Clark looked towards her and then over to Pete who nodded his head in agreement, seemingly knowing exactly what their thoughts were.

Signing to himself Clark turned back towards the General. "Very well sir, we'll sign but you have to go first in your explanations. If you really do know as much as you imply then I think we should get some answers to our questions first." agreed Clark. SG1 seemed to let out a collective breath at the admission and the General proceeded to hand out the forms to each member of the group. "I've already got signed copies here from Doctor Fraiser, myself and our President which I will get you three copies of. Once you've all signed we can begin." Said George and with that the group began signing the many pages of the document.

For the next several minutes the room was completely silent except for the scratching of pens on paper and the flipping of pages. Clark, Lana, and Pete were slowly reading through their documents before signing to make sure that they didn't get themselves into anything that they didn't want to be. Twenty minutes later Clark signed in the last page of the document and handed it over to the General followed closely by Lana and Pete. He was just about to begin asking questions when there was a knock on the door and several airmen walked in carrying trays of food. It seemed that their questions would have to wait until after lunch.

* * *

Lunch was a quite affair with the amount of tension in the air. Clark, Pete, and Lana all seemed to be worrying about what exactly they were going to find out and if they would really be allowed to leave when this was all over. Meanwhile SG1 and General Hammond had their thoughts on their hopes of an alliance for the good of earth and the universe as a whole. The simple fact was that there was a very good possibility they would fail without his help sometime within the next couple of years. The war was not going well and tensions were high throughout the universe as Anubis made his move for power. Nobody was safe right now and they could only hope that they were able to convince Clark that he was needed here, with the SGC.

Finally deciding that the silence had gone on long enough Pete pushed his half finished burger away from him, took a sip from his sprite and looked up towards the General. "Ok this is ridiculous. I swear the tension is so thick in this room I could cut it with my finger. Would somebody please say something? It's obvious you guys want something so why don't we cut the crap and get this thing started. Tell us what the hell happened last night. How did we get here in the blink of an eye, what exactly is so super secret about this base and why are you guys so interested in Clark." Ranted Pete.

This seemed to bring the others out of their stupors as a moment later as Daniel began to speak. "Your right Pete, we're just a little nervous is all. There is so much more going on here ten any of you could possibly imagine and I promise we'll get to that in a bit but for now lets start with introductions. There's no need to be formal about this. We'd like to be friends, get to know you guys and the things that you've been through. I understand that you and Clark are somewhat of the town hero's. Well we're hoping that those same qualities will convince you to help us."

"As I said let's start with Introductions. I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson but you can call me Daniel. I'm an archeologist and linguist and I joined the SGC nearly 8 years ago now. For the purpose of this meeting I'll skim over the trivial stuff and just hit the major points as will my colleagues. To my Right is Major Samantha Carter although we all call her Sam. She has a Ph.D. in astrophysics and is well versed in dozens of other fields ranging from quantum physics to biology. Across from me is Colonel Jack O'Neill, although you can just call him Jack. There's not much you need to know about him other then he's really just a big softy despite his hard shell and he's the leader of our team. SG1."

"The most interesting member of our team or at least the most interesting to you would be the gentleman sitting beside Jack. This is Teal'c and like you Clark, he is not from this world. In order to explain his origins and his past however I must first tell you exactly what we do here at the SGC." Explained Daniel. At the mention of another alien in the room Clark's head whipped around from where he was looking at Daniel to the stoic warrior sitting beside Lana. Instantly his eyes switched visual spectrums into the range of x-rays and he scanned what he felt could potentially be an opponent. When his eyes reached the man's stomach they widened in shock and in instinctively threw his chair back, shifting into super speed and putting himself between Lana and the Jaffa.

The rest of the people in the room Clark seemed to phase out of existence for a fraction of a second before both his and Lana's chairs were thrown across the room and Clark reappeared where Lana had been sitting previous, with Lana behind him. Seeing Clark react the way he had Pete was on his feet instantly and backing away from the table. "Stay away from us. You have a snake in your stomach. I saw it. It's obviously parasitic in nature. If it comes anywhere near my friends or you so much as look at them in a manner that causes me concern I'll kill you before you can even think to make your move." Yelled Clark

The sound brought armed men running into the room from both entrances with their guns trained on Clark, Lana, and Pete. Sam saw where things were going as did General Hammond and both tried to yell out to the guards but it was already to late. Clark rushed forward in super speed and before any of the four guards could react they were thrown back against the walls where they slumped down due to the force of the attack before trying to get back to their feet. Seeing that the situation was quickly getting out of hand Sam jumped to her feet with her hands out in front of her in a placating manner. "Clark I promise nothing is wrong. Teal'c is a friend, an ally and I vouch for him. The symbiote inside of him is unable to escape its pouch without his knowledge and consent. Your friends are in no harm what so ever. Airmen stand down; Everything's fine here, just a little misunderstanding." The airmen looked to the general for guidance who nodded his head and their weapons lowered before they exited the room.

As the excitement of the accident wore off the group took their seats again but with Clark and Lana switching positions. He still didn't trust the creature inside Teal'c enough to risk Lana to it. Daniel released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding and began his tale again. "You are currently inside the worlds most secure facility. This facility houses both NORAD and Stargate Command which is commonly referred to as the SGC."

"In 1928 a scientist by the name of named Doctor Langford uncovered a very old alien device during an archeological dig in Egypt by the town of Giza. The device was a mammoth stone ring. Many years later in the 1960's the US government discovers that it is in fact made of an unknown element and they begin experimenting with it. Eventually they give it up as a bad job, the records are sealed and the program is disbanded."

"Roughly three decades later in the late 1990's the US government reopens the program with a team of scientists trying to determine how to make the ring work. To the best of their knowledge it had never worked before and so all they have to go on is a cartouche with strange writing on it and seven symbols posted in the middle. This cartouche was found with the ring as part of the cover stone that encased it. Despite their best effort they are unable to determine what the ring is or how it works."

"It's around this time that both myself and Jack are brought in. You see Clark my research theories were not exactly well liked in the academic world. I believed that the pyramids in Egypt were in fact landing platforms for large spaceships of some type. My theories caught the attention of the military because they lined up with what little they knew about the gate and so I was approached by a woman by the name of Catherine Langford. She was the daughter of the dig's commissioner from 1928 and as such was a part of the project. within a relatively short period of time I figured out that the 7 symbols were in fact an address to another planet and that the writing I had been given described a device which was supposed to be a portal through the stars. It was only after I discovered this that I was told and shown the gate. The very gate you will see sometime today." explained Daniel. Pausing briefly Daniel took a sip of water before continuing.

"Once we got it running I accompanied Jack along with several other people through the gate to a planet called Abydos. It was during this mission that we discovered what, was quite possibly the universes greatest threat. We came across an alien race that called themselves the Goa'uld. They are a parasitic race of snake like creates that burrow their way into other people's bodies and attach themselves to the spinal cord effectively ceasing control of their bodies and taking them as hosts. They are a race of tyrants who consider themselves gods and enslave populations throughout the galaxy for their own gains." Continued Daniel

"While they are a technologically advanced race the majority of their technology has been stolen from others and adapted to their own needs. They are arrogant and believe themselves to be the gods they claim. They are capable of great acts of evil and are currently one of several threats to the universe."

"This particular planet was ruled by a Goa'uld who called himself Ra. He was what they call a system lord which essentially meant he was one of a few dozen powerful Goa'uld who owned vast territory throughout the galaxies. Near the end of the mission we successfully killed this Goa'uld and put earth on the map for all the Goa'uld to find. In essence we pissed them off and proved that we were a threat. At the end of the mission I stayed behind on Abydos for personal reasons and Jack returned along with the surviving members of our team. A year later I returned to earth and became a member of the flagship team for the SGC." Finished Daniel.

"That's where I come in. I was introduced to the program several years before their first mission and was part of a team trying to determine how to get the gate to function. At this time we already had a strong guess that the device was a transportation device of some sort and it was up to me and my team to figure out how to turn it on. As Daniel explained it was him that ultimately figured it out but it was me that designed what we now refer to as the dialing computer and I am considered to be one of the foremost experts on the gate today. The Stargate is actually the world's biggest super conductor. It stores unbelievable amounts of energy before using that energy to create a stable artificial wormhole between two gates. The gate that you walk through essentially breaks you down to your base elements before sending you to the receiving gate. The receiving gate than uses advanced technology and programming to put you together again allowing you to travel across galaxies in seconds." Explained Sam.

"In our first mission as a team Daniel, Jack and I were captured by a Goa'uld named Apophis and sentenced to death. Teal'c here was his First Prime which essentially means he was his right hand man. He's what's called a Jaffa and carries a baby symbiote within him like all Jaffa. They are humanoid and have been adapted to serve as incubators for the Goa'uld young which serve two purposes for them. The first is that their young are able to grow up in such a way that when they mature they are guaranteed to be able to take a host, the second is that they gain a massive army from out of the Jaffa they use." Stated Sam.

"During that mission we were able to convince Teal'c that the Goa'uld could be defeated and he betrayed Apophis by joining us and helping us escape. He's now the last member of SG1. Our job along with the rest of the SG teams is essentially to explore the universe, find new technologies that can help us defeat the Goa'uld, protect earth as well as make new alliances that can help improve life on earth or help in our war efforts." Finished Sam

By this time in the story all three of the teens were staring blankly at the adults in the room. They all knew that alien life was real after all Clark was an alien himself but the idea of battling intergalactic tyrants who wanted to enslave all life was just a little to far over their heads. Clark for his part was wondering why it always had to be him to deal with this type of bullshit. If it wasn't one thing it was another. He would have to ask Jor'El about all of this the next time he was able to get to the cave.

Daniel seeing that Sam was finished cut in to continue the story. "The problem now Clark is that we've made some really powerful enemies. Granted we've made some powerful allies as well but the fact is that we're at our ropes end. The Goa'uld, are winning and more specifically a particular Goa'uld is winning, one who is far worse then all the rest. His name is Anubis and he is the most powerful and most ruthless of the system lords. He is thousands of years old and practically immortal. The long and short of it is that he tricked another very powerful being into helping him ascend to a higher plane of existence causing him to shed his body and become immortal. Realizing that she had made a mistake this being attempted to push him back and only partially succeeded. He is not half ascended which means that he still has no body, he's still practically invincible, and he has all the knowledge of the race who helped him ascend."

"He has a strong hold over the rest of the system lords and is slowly killing them off one by one and taking their armies for his own causing him to become more powerful everyday. It won't be long before he turns his attention on earth and comes to destroy us. Already he has developed a special type of artificial soldier which are nearly impossible to kill. We call them Kull warriors and they have special armor which makes them impervious to almost anything we can through at them. we recently developed a new type of weapon called the Kull Disrupter which has allowed us to kill them but our supply is limited and it's not exactly something we can carry around with us at all times. It's these soldiers that he's using to ensure his victory over the other system lords and their armies."

"This is where you come in Clark. You see several weeks ago we traveled to a planet to research an outpost by the race I mentioned that helped Anubis ascend. A long time ago they were perhaps the most powerful race ever to live. They called themselves the Ancients and were part of an alliance of four great races. They are in fact the race that built the Stargate network. While they have long since left this plain of existence their technology still remains and so do a lot of their outposts. They are perhaps our greatest hope for securing victory. While on this planet we came across something that I believe will be of interest to you. Behind the outpost were three large crystalline structures." As Daniel said that he turned on the video screen and pulled up and image of the outpost and the 3 structures behind it. The look that crossed over Clark's face was enough to tell them that their suspicions about his origins were correct.

Clark stared in absolute shock at the image in front of him. There on the screen behind a large broken down structure of some sorts were three exact replicas of the fortress of solitude. Without even thinking about it he mumbled out the words.

"That's… that's not possible. Krypton was destroyed, my people killed. There's no way, Jor'El would have told me if there were more." Mumbled Clark as he continued to stare at the picture. While the others all caught his words they made no mention of it figuring that it would come about in time if he agreed to tell them anything. Daniel decided to push forward and finish his explanation anyways. "What you will perhaps find most interesting about this planet Clark is what we found inside the Ancient outpost that you see in the forefront of this image."

Clicking a button on the remote Daniel changed the image to show the image of the space ship on one half of the screen with the image of the pilot on the other. There clearly displayed on her chest was the symbol for the house of El. A symbol that only would have been given to one of their own. Clark's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open in surprise. For several moments he opened and closed his mouth in a perfect imitation of a goldfish before finally being able to speak again. "Where… Where is she? Is she alive? Has she said anything?" these questions and a half a dozen others flew from Clark's mouth in an endless stream of questions as the possibility of finally having another member of his race back hit him.

Lana looked worriedly towards Clark before whispering to him. "Do you know her Clark?" The words out of Clark's mouth ground to a stop as he looked down at Lana and realized what her concerns were. Instantly he began to alleviate those concerns. "Lana I have never seen that woman before in my life. she means nothing to me in the way you are worrying about. I'm only interested because she is perhaps the only other surviving member of my race and the symbol on her top clearly displays the crest of the house of El, My house Lana. She is not only part of my race but part of my family." Stated Clark.

Daniel took another sip of water before answering a few of Clark's questions and continuing. "To the best of our knowledge Clark she is alive and healing. When we found her she had been in stasis for many years and was infected with a virus of some sort that was slowly killing her. One of our allies was able to remove it and we found out from the research we found in the ancient outpost that we found her in that the radiation from a yellow sun would heal her. We hope that she'll wake within a few weeks but were not sure."

Clark nodded his head in understanding. "I want her turned over into my custody immediately. I'll take her to the Fortress of Solitude and she'll be safe there until she awakes." Demanded Clark. Daniel seemed to consider this for a moment before responding. "We can discuss exactly what happens after Clark but I see no reason that we can accommodate you on that. Now there is one other thing that I want to discuss. We've done a fair bit of research on you Clark and on your friends and during this research I came across and article that you wrote about a cave in your area. Inside this area was an image that I found very interesting because it suggested an alliance had been formed between your race and the Ancients in an effort to preserve their knowledge. The writing in the image that explained the specifics was very small and out of focus so I was only able to make out a few words. I was hoping you might be able to tell us more." Finished Daniel

Clark's head shot up again in surprise. To the best of his knowledge the only thing written in that cave was written in Kryptonian. He had never seen anything else. And surely Jor'El would have told him. But maybe he wouldn't have told him. He had after all not told him about the three fortresses on that planet, or the possibility of survivors or so many other things. He was always manipulating him. He was so incredibly confused. He needed to be able to think this over, talk with Jor'El and his friends and family. God his head felt like it was going to explode.

Sam looked across the table at the teens and could tell that they had reached their limit. All three of them had their eyes glassed over and were staring blankly into space. They needed to wrap this up and let them go home to think things over. "The thing is Clark we'd like you to join the SGC. Between your gifts and your knowledge of your race as well as your possible connection to the Ancients you could potentially be what earth needs to survive this war."

"Clark I know this is a lot to take in at once so what we'd like to suggest is that you and your friends go home and talk it over amongst yourself with the understand that only the three of you can talk about everything we just discussed or anything that you found out over the last 24 hours. We'd also like to come with you. We'd give you your space, stay in a hotel or something in town and this way you can talk to us if you need and Daniel can check out that cave to find out about the rest of the writings. We'll take it slow, no pressure what so ever and then we'll go from there. What do you say?" asked Sam.

"There is so much we can do for each other. Clark we work with aliens on a daily basis. You would be among friends here. I know that you're worried about being taken advantage of or being treated as a science project but I swear to you that you will never have to worry about either of those things here. You would be brought in as a civilian contractor just like I was and as such you won't be restricted by the military. While you would have to follow orders here you would be free to leave or quit at any time." stated Daniel

Clark stared at the group in surprise before looking towards Pete and then Lana, both of whom were staring wide eyed at this latest piece of news. "What exactly would I need to do if I agreed to this and not to sound selfish or anything but what do I get out of this for putting my life on the line? I'm only just starting to get a normal life like I've always wanted. This really throws a monkey wrench into that. You have no idea just how much I'd be giving up to help you." Inquired Clark carefully. He honestly didn't know what to make of all of this. It was just so much to take in at once.

General Hammond cut the rest off before they could respond and looked straight at the boy in question. "Clark I have been given permission to offer you anything within reason to gain your support. At this moment I can't tell you exactly what you would be doing because I don't know but I can tell you that we would do our best to keep you safe. The terms of the arrangement would be completely up for negotiation. You're not going to be forced to do anything you don't want to. We would share information and knowledge and together with your help we would hopefully be able to overcome some of the many obstacles that are currently facing us." Stated George.

"With that said I'd like to give you a sign of good faith. I understand that your family farm hasn't been doing that well lately. Your father was forced to sell off a portion of it before he died, and your mother hasn't been able to keep it up since then. With your permission and without any obligation what so ever the SGC is prepared to completely pay of your family mortgage, pay off all the your family debts, reacquire the land that was sold and post to your mothers account the sum of two million united states dollars with which she can retire on when the time comes."

"In addition we're prepared to pull strings to get both your friends into the post secondary school and program of their choice, paid in full. They would be given more then enough money to live comfortably during their schooling and would be put up in the best private housing money could buy. Likewise the same offer will be extended to your friend Chloe Sullivan and the president of the United States is prepared to give her several exclusive interviews and put in a personal recommendation that she be promoted to the position of her choice within the Daily Planet, or any other paper of her choosing. In essence Mr. Kent we are prepared to secure your friends with the lives of their dreams and all that we ask in return is that you consider our offer to join us. Should you decide against it you all of these things shall remain in effect at no cost to you or yours."

"Now should you decide to join us as we've requested then you will be able to request anything that you wish in exchange for your services. Almost nothing is beyond you. As Major Carter mentioned this is a lot to take in so why don't we bring this to a close for today and you can take some time to think this all over within the comfort of your home town. In the mean time we will begin processing the paperwork for the items we just discussed. Each of your friends will be contacted by somebody within the next 24 hours in regards to their choices." Finished General Hammond with a friendly smile on his face.

Hundreds of thoughts swirled through Clarks mind as he continued to stare at the group assembled in front of him. It was all too much right now. He couldn't take it. He needed time to think so that he could work this all out. He needed to be able to talk to his friends and come to a decision on his own without these people looking over his shoulder. Even so he was not going to turn down their generous offer. He didn't need to do a thing other then consider their offer and he was planning on doing that anyways. He had to admit that he was interested. He just needed to work out the details. He wouldn't make this type of decision without the support of his friends and his mother. Taking a deep breath and pushing all his wandering thoughts out of his mind Clark prepared himself for what was to come.

"I have so many questions right now I don't even know where to begin but this is not a decision I can make lightly. To start I want to thank you for your incentives but you need to know that you can't buy me. I don't think that's what your doing or I wouldn't be accepting it but it does eliminate some of the problems that would have swayed my decision in the other direction. I would never of left my mother without a way to take care of herself and the farm. Likewise I would have wanted my friends to be safe and enjoying themselves. I won't say that I'm not intrigued and I don't think I could ever just turn my back on a threat like this knowing that I could do something about it but I still need to think it over, discuss it with my friends and come to a decision. With that said I have a few requests before I can even consider saying yes." Stated Clark.

"I understand son, this is a difficult decision to make. Tell me what you're requests are and I'll do my best to see to them." commented George. Clark nodded before taking another steadying breath. "Before I do anything I want my mother and my friend Chloe brought into this. My mother has kept my secret all my life and I refuse to hold this from her. Chloe, well that's a little more complex. I didn't want to bring it up like this guys but Chloe knows my secret. It happened months ago just after the meteor shower and my life was so messed up with everything that I forgot to tell you guys. Then my dad died and well you get my point. Chloe found out my secret by herself, I have been depending on her quite a bit lately even if I haven't gotten around to telling you two that she knows. If I don't tell her she'll know something is up and you can bet your asses that she'll find out what. I need to be able to talk to these four people openly. They mean the most to me and I won't have this secret hurting my relationships with them." stated Clark.

"If I decide to be a part of this program of yours then I want Lana, Pete, and Chloe to have the option to join as well. We're a team, we've done everything together throughout high school and every time I've went into a battle of one kind or another I knew that I would have them to back me up in one way or another. I won't throw that away now. I don't know what capacity they would take or what they would do but I want them there with me if they'll come." Continued Clark.

"Is that all son?" inquired George. Clark nodded. "Yes, for now sir. We can discuss things in more detail I guess if I join but for now I just want to go home, talk to my friends and family and think it over." stated Clark. "Very well son I believe we can handle those requests." General Hammond was prevented from saying more when the Klaxons began going off throughout the base.

"Unscheduled Off world Activation. General Hammond to the Control room." Came Walter's voice over the PA system. "Colonel O'Neill, bring our guests down with us. I think it's time they see the Stargate." Said General Hammond as he moved towards the stairs. Jack nodded his head in agreement and lead the group of teens down the stairs into the control room with the rest of SG1 following closely behind.

The group stopped in front of the large bay window overlooking the gate room where the General turned an addressed Walter. "This Clark is the Stargate." Said Daniel just as the seventh chevron locked and the wormhole formed within the gate, the event horizon blasting forward like a swirling fountain of water. Walter spun in his chair to look at them. "It's SG19's IDC sir, their not due back for another twenty one hours." Stated Walter. General Hammond nodded in understanding. "Open the Iris, airmen to the gate room." Commanded General Hammond.

Clark stood watching the shimmering surface of the event horizon in a trance like state. It called out to him in a way only the Fortress of Solitude ever had. Without even thinking about it Clark activated his super hearing and began listening to the event horizon as it rippled each time something passed through it. A moment later however his face showed confusion as his eyes had told him four people walked through the gate but he could have swore he heard three times that many. Closing his eyes for a moment Clark focused on the footsteps of each person walking down the catwalk in the gate room.

Clark's eyes shot open and he switched to x-ray vision at the same moment as he once again confirmed the presence of more people then there should have been. What confronted him was not what he had been expecting. Standing behind the four members of SG19, were eight creatures, each with a Goa'uld wrapped around their spine. Their organs were nothing like what he remembered seeing in biology class and so he could only assume that they were aliens. While he watched he became aware of the slight glow around each of them which he assumed was what was causing their invisibility.

Clarks eyes widened in alarm as he realized that this was in fact an attack. Each of the eight beings raised an arm in a different direction as if preparing to strike somebody down. "LOOK OUT" screamed Clark causing everyone to turn their attention to him a mere second before orange blasts of energy filled the gate room striking down the guards and the four members of SG19 before they could so much as raise their weapons.

"Close the blast doors, lock down the gate room." Commanded the General. For Clark time seemed to stand still as he realized that he had been too late, he had heard them the moment they stepped through the gate and he had done nothing until it was already too late. This was what the Goa'uld were capable of, this was the type of people they were. Daniel had been right. They were tyrants and they needed to be stopped. At this exact moment he knew there was nothing he could do about the other Goa'uld but for he could do something about the eight abominations that stood within the gate room. He would be their judge, jury, and executioner.

The blast doors had only just started moving down to cover the glass of the control room when Clark jumped into action. Jumping into super speed Clark threw himself through the bullet proof glass in front of him and into the gate room below. Behind him he heard Lana scream out for him just as the blast doors slammed tightly shut leaving Clark to fight his battle alone.

* * *

Lana looked at Clark as he yelled out his warning before turning back towards the gate room to watch the men inside get cut down like blades of grass. Even before she had time to realize exactly what had happened she heard the General call out for the blast doors to be closed and then the unthinkable happened. As the large steel door began to move down from the ceiling she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and watched as Clark disappeared a moment before the glass in front of them exploded outward towards the gate room. "CLARKKK" screamed Lana as the door slammed shut effectively cutting off her view of the man she loved. Beside her she could hear the General barking orders as SG1 took off running out of the room apparently on their way to the weapons locker so that they could help.

"Bring up the gate room camera's on this screen now." ordered General Hammond and a moment later the screen in front of them showed the gate room from an overhead view that covered the vast majority of the room. Inside was nothing short of chaos. The battle had begun and Lana could only pray that Clark would come back to her.

* * *

As the blast door slammed shut behind him the firing started up anew and Clark jumped into super speed, all the while watching his opponents through his x-ray vision. He wasn't sure if he was impervious to their blasts so he didn't want to risk getting hit. As the eight warriors began to open fire on him Clark rushed forward and swerved between the now slow moving beams of light. Making quick work of the obstacles Clark pulled back his and slammed it into the first creature's chest before darting to the left and repeating the process with another one. One by one he rushed forward and hit each with enough force to kill an ordinary man before dropping out of super speed and watching his handy work. The eight creatures flew in all directions before slamming into the walls and cracking them every so slightly.

Assuming that he had done his job Clark turned to walk towards one of the two doors when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. What he saw surprised him greatly. Each of the eight warriors was standing up one by one and began running forward towards him. It was impossible. They didn't so much as have a scratch on them. Their bones weren't bruised or cracked or anything. But that was impossible. He had thrown them into walls with enough force to crack them. They should have been unconscious at least. It seemed that the only thing his attack had successfully accomplished was destroying whatever device was allowing each of them to remain invisible. Each of the 8 warriors now stood in all their glory facing him.

They were covered completely in black from head to toe and their eyes glowed a bright yellow that only added to their outer worldly appearance. Strapped to the tops of their arms were weapons of some sort. They were likely what they had been using to shot at him with.

In the back of his mind something began tugging at him, begging him to remember something that he had just recently heard but the information alluded him and he couldn't quite remember. Deciding that focused force might be needed Clark whipped around to this right and faced one of the enemies that was rushing at him from near the right hand blast door. Switching into super speed again Clark charged forward and stretched out his left hand. A moment later his hand closed around the throat of his enemy. Clark lifted it off the ground while still charging forward and as he reached the edge of the room he through the creature out with all his might causing it to slam into the wall with enough force to create a large indent several inches deep.

* * *

From in side the control room General Hammond watched with most of the rooms other occupants as eight sets of cracks snaked their way up the walls from various positions as if something heavy had just crashed into them. Clark had seemed to phase out of existence again like he had in the briefing room and a moment later these cracks had appeared for seemingly no reason at all. And then the reason was made clear as one by one the eight Kull warriors flickered into existence from their now fallen positions on the ground.

They watched as Clark realized that his attack had not worked and he flickered out again followed almost instantly by one of the aliens before both reappeared across the room. Clark standing a several feet from the wall and the Kull warrior embedded into the wall where Clark had thrown him. To George it was simply amazing to watch a teenage boy seemingly man handle one of their most feared enemies best soldiers as if it was nothing more then a child's toy. He seemed completely unimpressed with them other then being slightly surprised as they managed to survive his attacks.

The group watched as Clark spun around and disappeared again before reappearing in front of another Kull warrior on the far side of the room repeating the process again with ease. As Clark spun around to repeat the process a third time the surprise clearly showed on his face as he watched the first Kull he had attacked climb out of the wall and begin marching towards him again. So surprised was he that he failed to notice the other warriors raise their arms and open fire. The blasts slammed into him from all sides forcing him to his knees as he cried out in pain. For a brief moment George thought he was about to witness the death of a Kryptonian.

* * *

As the blasts continued to rain down on him Clark fell to his knees. The pain was intense and his mind was beginning to fail him. it felt like dozens of little knives cutting him at the same time. He knew that he was in no immediate threat of dieing. Not from these attacks but that did not stop the pain. He could feel his skin burning in places from the concentrated fire and all coherent thought left, leaving him with only instinct.

His hand shot out to the nearest warrior and yanked him in front of him, using him as a shield before jumping into super speed. With a firm grip on the creatures waist Clark spun in a circle several times before launching the creature with all his might at one of the other warriors sending them both hurtling towards the wall just below the blast doors. Without even waiting for the two to hit Clark threw himself forward at speeds he didn't even know he was capable of and pulled back his fist before ramming it forward with all the power he could muster. His fist met the chest plate of the first warriors' armor like a jackhammer meeting rock and slammed into it without mercy. A second later the two warriors crashed into the wall one on top of the other and Clarks unstoppable first met the supposedly unbreakable armor of his opponent while it had nowhere left to go. A sickening crunching sound rang through out the gate room as the very building seemed to shake from the force of the impact causing dust to drop from the ceiling.

* * *

General Hammond's mouth dropped open as he witnessed Clark kill two Kull warriors with his bare fists. It was perhaps the first time in his military career that he felt totally and unequivocally surprised. He just could not seem to comprehend what he had just seen. It seemed impossible and yet beside him he could clearly hear the boy's two friends cheering his success. Suddenly coming back to reality and realizing that he was in fact the commanding officer here and that he was standing with his mouth open George closed it with an audible click before going back to watching the screens. SG1 would be back with the Kull disrupters within a few minutes but if it kept up like this there would be nothing left for them to fight.

* * *

Clark ripped his hand out of the aliens' chest and both fell forward dead before they hit the ground. Relieved and reenergized as he realized that he could in fact kill them Clark turned to face the rest of his enemies. They too would meet the same fate as their comrades if they even considered each other as such. Shaking his right fist vigorously to clean it of the blood Clark darted to the left in super speed as the warriors opened fire. Just as he had killed the previous warriors he had remembered what he had been trying to since the start of the fight. These creatures were the Kull warriors that SG1 had mentioned. Their armor protected them from almost all forms of attack which meant that if he wanted to kill them he had to over power their armor, he had to hit it with enough force that the shielding would buckle and then shatter beneath his might allowing him to obliterate his targets.

Running as fast as he could Clark threw out his feet and launched himself at the wall where his feet dug in creating craters before he launched himself back across the room at his practically stationary enemy who stood a mere foot from the opposite wall. Throwing his shoulder into his opponent the two of them slammed hard into the wall and Clark was rewarded for his action by a satisfying cracking sound that let him know he had just shattered his opponent's ribs. Pulling back slightly the Kull slumped to the ground with its head resting against the wall. Not interested in mercy any longer Clark raised his foot of the ground and slammed it with all the force he could bring to bare against the front of the Kull warrior's face. A second later all that remained of the Kull warriors head was a stain on the wall.

As he spun around Clark spotted another Kull less then a meter away and launched himself forward landing with his legs on either side of his opponent and forcing it to the ground Clark began to rain down a flurry of deadly punches, each one becoming stronger and stronger as the armor seemed to buckle for a moment before shattering under the force of the punches leaving the creature within be crushed from the sheer force of the volleys.

Hauling himself from the ground Clark charged forward preparing to kill finish the remaining four quickly. As quickly as he could Clark shot across the room and closed his hands tightly around the throats of two Kull warriors before continuing to rush towards the wall where he buried the two into the wall pushing his palms forward as far as they could go and with as much force as possible. The result was instantaneous. His hands pushed through the armor surrounding the neck and crushed the now exposed wind pipes before severing the spinal cords from their brains and slicing the symbiote in half at the same time. As a result of the force the bodies were buried inside indentations over a foot thick and the heads were nearly severed from the rest of their bodies.

Turning around Clark surveyed the scene before him. just barely to his right and straight forward was one of the two remaining Kull warriors with his only remaining comrade standing a mere ten meters or so behind him. Clark's eyes flashed red for a moment as he threw himself towards the completion of his goal and charged forward at even faster speeds then before. As he passed the first Kull warrior Clark cocked his fist back and struck out with a vicious upper cut that snapped the Kull warriors head back killing it instantly as it flew through the air at incredible speeds and slammed into the blast door protecting the control room leaving a huge body sized indent within the metal.

Without even slowing his approach Clark bent down and speared the last remaining warrior around the midsection, picking it up off the ground by about a foot before sending both of them crashing through the metal blast doors leading to the hallway outside.

* * *

SG1 raced back towards the gate room as fast as their legs could carry them. as they ran the floor continued to shake every so often from what they could only assume were the force of the attacks either being used against Clark or by Clark. None of them knew for sure. They had heard nothing from the control room since being informed that the attackers had in fact been Kull. As the group came around the corner the blast door came into sight. Putting on another boost of speed Major Carter prepared herself for battle with the hopes that her young friend was still alive. The group was brought up short however when the very door they were heading for was blasted out of it's place and slammed into the opposite wall with enough forward to leave a small crater.

What really caught there attention however was a blood covered Clark Kent as he reached out with one hand and pulled the obviously dead Kull warrior's face up to his waiting fist which he then slammed into it with all the force of a freight train before repeating the process over and over again while screaming out a battle cry. His eyes were closed and tears were pouring down his cheeks as he continued to attack his opponent. Nothing could have prepared any of them for this sight.

Finally as if sensing their presence Clark snapped out of his trance and stumbled backwards from the wrecked remains of the Kull before falling over backwards against the wall beside the now open door and passing out. It seemed that the experience had been too much for him. If she had to guess what the problem was, she would have to say that the emotional strain of the battle and his resulting acts of violence had caused his body to close in on itself in an effort to shield him from the outside world.

As SG1 moved forward around the corner they were met with an even bigger shock. Scattered throughout the gate room were the remains of seven Kull warriors in varying states but all clearly dead. The room looked exactly like the battlefield it had been. The walls and floor were covered in craters and blood with cracks littering all the surfaces except the ceiling. The blast door to the control room was seriously dented in the shape of what looked to be a person; obviously one of the Kull had been thrown there. The simple fact was that Clark had decimated the Kull with nothing but his brut strength and he barely had a scratch on him. The scene was both awe inspiring and frightening at the same time.

From behind them General Hammond and a slew of armed men rushed into the gate room to secure the area. Out in the hallway Sam could see Lana cradling Clarks head to her chest as she cried over him and Pete knelled beside them both with his arms wrapped around the two protectively. The battle may have been won but it seemed that the consequences were only just starting to be seen.


	5. Home sweet Home

**Author Notes:**

Here we are at chapter 5 ladies and gentleman. I would like to start by saying sorry for the delay. This chapter was going really well and then it just went to hell when I got to the meeting with Jor'El and Moros. Both meetings were a real pain to right and I must have written them about ten times each before I was satisfied. At any rate I hope you all like the way it has turned out. I believe the next chapter will be much faster. Hopefully it will be done next week.

I figure I'll try to post a chapter a week. I noticed with my other fiction that things didn't do so well until I started pacing myself in the posts. While the story was still good people didn't bother reviewing because they got tied up reading like crazy people to keep up with my pace. I'm averaging about 14,000 words a chapter right now so that should keep you going for the week.

Well I hope you all enjoy this chapter of The Last Kryptonian. Our young hero returns to his home town this chapter along with his two friends and SG1. This chapter is really all about exploring Clark's options and his past. Also we're going to find out about the mysterious connection between the Kryptonians and the Ancients.

So read on and be sure to _**REVIEW.

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**_

**Stargate SG1 – The Last Kryptonian**

Chapter Five: Home sweet Home

By Cybergades

* * *

The attack on the SGC had been over now for nearly an hour but they had only just finished cleaning out the gate room. According to initial estimates it would take nearly a week to repair the damage done and clean the area up. The end result was that all inbound gate activity was suspended until for the time being and out bound gate activity was reserved to notify off world teams and allies of the current situation. Outside of that nobody was allowed through the gate. It seemed that they had picked the perfect time to send SG1 on a little vacation what with the gate travel being suspended and all. Now General Hammond sat in the briefing room once more reviewing the tape of the incident with SG1.

The whole battle had lasted less then five minutes from the moment the Kull had walked through the gate to the instant that the last one had died just outside the gate room. In one word it was simply unbelievable. Getting similar results with the Kull disrupters would have been difficult. To do it with your bare hands was unthinkable. SG1 was left staring in open disbelief while General Hammond was once again left with his mouth hanging wide open, unknowingly doing a perfect imitation of a fish out of water. It just didn't seem real.

"OH YEAH. I have GOT to have him on my team. Clark Kent 1, Kull 0 and the Crowd goes Wild." Cheered Jack when he finally regained use of his motor skills. Around the table the rest of SG1 seemed to agree that it had been beyond impressive however both Sam and Daniel were looking decidedly pale after witnessing what could only be called a massacre. The Kull may have had the numbers and the fire power but there was no doubt that they had been completely out classed. They hadn't stood a chance.

General Hammond looked around the room with a grave look on his face before speaking his mind. "It seems people that we have another problem to consider. While Clark may be an incredible asset in a battle we must ensure that he continues to maintain a high level of moral fiber. I don't think I need to tell any of you what would happen if he suddenly went rouge or worse outright turned against us. With powers like his it is safe to say it would be near impossible to stop him. I must admit I am relieved to see that the event took an emotional toll on him. Had he walked away from the fight without showing any emotions I would have been forced to look into less then savory possibilities to contain him." said General Hammond.

"This also brings us to my next concern. This event was witnessed by no less then a dozen personnel and while I am confident that it has not spread beyond that point I believe we have to be extremely careful that this information is not leaked to the NID. Based on our conversation with Mr. Kent I believe it is safe to say that they are the type of people he has been most worried about and should they become involved I am concerned that we may loose all favor with him." explained General Hammond.

Daniel snapped out of his daze and ripped his eyes away from the video screen which had now gone while turning his gaze towards General Hammond. "I don't believe we'll have any problems with Clark in the moral department sir. From everything that we have learned about him so far and from our research into his past it seems that he is your perfect example of a model citizen. I believe that he will stick to what he feels is right and I believe that his sense of right and wrong has been ingrained within him through out his life by his parents. I see no possibility of this type of thing becoming second nature to him. If anything I think he will simply learn to handle the stress better when he comes to realize that it is a necessary evil like we all do. In my opinion there's no chance of him becoming just a mindless killing machine. I believe his friends will see to that." Commented Daniel

"Major Carter I understand that you've been to see them since the incident. How is the boy doing?" inquired General Hammond. With a sad smile Sam voiced her opinion. "Honestly sir I think this is going to be with him for a while, possibly even the rest of his life. I was with them about half an hour after the battle and Clark had just woke up. I didn't get to talk to him much honestly as he didn't seem to want to talk to anyone. Lana was trying to get him to talk to her about it but he wouldn't even look at her. I'm not sure how things will work out. I think the best thing for him right now is to get him out of the base and back to Smallville where he can think this over someplace he feels safe." Explained Sam.

"Very well, SG1 you are hereby excused from active duty. Officially you will all be taking a badly needed vacation and have decided to go with Doctor Jackson while he looks into the Smallville caves. Unofficially you are to escort Clark Kent, Lana Lang, and Pete Ross back to Smallville. Once there, you are to find a place to stay and make yourselves available to the group incase they have any questions. When the time comes you are to ensure that both Chloe Sullivan and Martha Kent sign the non-disclosure forms. Finally Doctor Jackson you are to study the caves and find out as much as possible about the writings within, both Ancient and Kryptonian. Above all else you are to do everything in your power to convince Clark Kent to join the SGC. Good luck and good speed. You leave in an hour." Commanded General Hammond.

With those final words SG1 nodded in understanding before leaving the room to pack for the trip, leaving General Hammond with the difficult task of informing the President of the attack while ensuring that the NID was not brought in on the case.

* * *

Clark had never felt so much in his life. The battle had taken its toll on him but in a completely different fashion then he imagined it would have. He had expected to get injured or to get in trouble for acting alone but instead the consequence of his actions was emotional pain and lots of it. He imagined it had something to do with the way he had beaten his opponents. Well that was it right there wasn't it? He had in fact 'beaten' his opponents to death. He had used both his super speed and his super strength in conjunction to increase the force behind his attacks exponentially and the result was that he had mutilated those creatures. It didn't matter to him that they had been evil or that they had killed so many others. It was the first time that he had intentionally killed anyone and it was ripping him apart inside.

He couldn't even look at Lana anymore or anyone for that matter. He felt so dirty. When he had woken up he had been sitting in the shower with the water running down on him and Lana had been there cleaning the blood off of him. That sight had hurt more then he could ever have imagined. Her delicate hands were stained slightly with blood from where she had been washing it off and her clothes were covered in it. How could she even stand to look at him now? He was a monster. He didn't deserve her and that realization hurt the most.

Clark was brought crashing out of his thoughts when a warm set of arms wrapped around him and he visibly flinched from the contact while casting his gaze downwards to his feet and doing everything in his power to avoid Lana's eyes. He couldn't stand to look into her eyes. He just knew that he would find disappointment and disgust there for what he had done.

* * *

Lana stared down at Clark from her position above him before making her decision. He had been sitting in this corner for the past half hour or so and hadn't said a word, nor had he looked at anyone. The usually confident man that she loved so much was nowhere to be seen and in his place was a hurt and lost little boy. It caused her heart to break just looking at him. She didn't need to be able to read minds, to know what he was thinking, what he was feeling. It was so obvious in the way he sat; in the way he avoided her gaze that he felt dirty and unworthy of others. Oh how wrong he was. He had done what needed to be done and she refused to let him blame himself for that. She wanted that strong man back and she was going to have him.

Sitting down beside him Lana wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him tightly to her. When he flinched at the contact she was startled for a moment but recovered quickly and only pulled him closer to her and began rocking back and forth slowly while stroking his face lovingly, the way her mother used to when she was a child. Seeing his gaze shift to his feet Lana decided that it was time to put an end to this.

"Clark… Clark, please look at me. I love you, you know that right? You have nothing to be ashamed of. Please don't turn away from me now, not now that we've finally found each other." Begged Lana as she pulled his head back and forced him to look into her eyes. Lana stared lovingly into his eyes for several moments before capturing his lips in a gentle and heartfelt kiss.

At first she was a little discouraged when he didn't respond to the kiss. He just sat there without returning it but after a moment Lana decided that it didn't matter if he didn't return her feelings right now. This moment was about Clark and she needed him to realize that he was still loved, that she still loved him with all her heart and that nothing would ever change that.

Lana shifted her position from his side so that she was sitting in his lap before slowly bringing him down to the ground with her. Once they were both lying down Lana slipped her hands under his shirt and began rubbing his chest in a loving manner while leaning down and kissing his lips softly again. As she kissed him she lightly ran her tongue over his bottom lip, nipping gently in request for entrance. A moment later she knew she had gotten through to him when his arms slowly wrapped around her and his mouth opened before his tongue darted out and began playing with hers.

Lana pulled back slightly after a few minutes of intense kissing and smiled down at him. The haunted look in his eyes was still there but at least now he was responding to her and he wasn't avoiding her gaze any more. "I love you Clark." Whispered Lana into his ear as she lay her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes to enjoy the moment. She could feel Clark's strong hands rubbing up and down her back and she loved the feeling. It felt so good to be in his arms like this. They didn't even have to be doing anything and it still felt so good, so right. How she could ever have fooled herself into thinking that she could live without this was beyond her. There was nobody else for her but Clark. It had always been Clark and it always would be. The other boys she had dated just didn't match up. She had always felt like something was missing and the only time in her life that the hole in her heart was filled, was when she had been with Clark Kent.

A moment later she felt Clark's lips brush against her collarbone before he began trailing kisses up her neck towards her ear. Not wanting a repeat of that morning when Pete had caught the two of them in the heat of the moment Lana pulled back slightly and placed her finger on his lips before shaking her head playfully. "Not now love. We don't want Pete or anybody else for that matter to walk in on us again now do we? And I don't know about you but the next time we start something I don't want to be interrupted. My body's still tingling from this morning." Lana explained coyly before leaning down and kissing him lightly on the lips.

Clark groaned and pulled her tight. "Don't tease me like that Lana." Joked Clark before flipping her over, slipping his hands just under her shirt and tickling her sides and stomach. Lana immediately began to squirm and laugh as she tried fruitlessly to bat Clark's hands away but Clark refused to stop and continued to move his fingers quickly over her body making her laugh harder as she continued to squirm beneath him. Finally through her laughter Lana managed to get out a few words. "I give up, I give up." cried Lana with tears of mirth running down her face.

The moment he stopped Lana took her chance and flipped him over and held his hands above his head. "You should know by now Clark that I always win." Said Lana with a devious smile on her face. Clark only arched an eyebrow at her in question and she smiled wider before jutting her hips forward and backwards a few times from her position causing Clark to groan in pleasure. "If you're not careful I might not play with you when we get home." Said Lana as she let his hands go.

Clark made a show of nodding solemnly before wrapping his arms quickly around her waist and jumping to his feet before hauling her over his shoulder so that her whole upper half was hanging along his back. Laughing Clark began to spin around as he joked with her. "Who's winning now Lana? I thought you always won, well what are you waiting for?" laughed Clark as he continued to spin around and around with just a touch of super speed to make things more interesting.

Lana was laughing hysterically from his shoulder as she pounded her fists on his back. "Let me down this instant Clark. Oh I am so going to get you for this. Just you wait until we get home. I think I might decide to be celibate for a few months just to show you who's boss around here." demanded Lana. Of course it didn't come out quite as convincing as she had hoped since she was laughing at the time.

Finally Clark stopped spinning and pulled Lana off his shoulder so that she was laying in his arms bridal style before leaning forward and kissing her tenderly on the lips. When he pulled away he smirked slightly at her which was an odd expression to see on Clarks face. "I don't think you would want to go the celibate road love. It wouldn't be much fun for either of us." stated Clark as he sat her up in bed before climbing in with her and lying down so that his head was cushioned in her lap.

Lana smiled down at him before starting to run her fingers through his hair, gently rubbing his scalp. It was something she had discovered that he liked back when they had been together last time. She had always loved his hair and one night after they had made love she had simply stayed awake running her fingers through it. She had thought he had been asleep but in fact he had just been lying there silently. It had scared her half to death when he had spoke up and told her how amazing it felt. She had been doing it ever since whenever she got the chance. It seemed to have a claming effect on him which was a plus at times like this. She imagined that she would need it a lot in the future with all the stress he would be under from this new mission. She didn't believe for a second that he would turn it down.

These Goa'uld were just as much a threat to her and the rest of his loved ones as they were to everyone else. Clark would never sit back and do nothing if they were in danger. The only question in her mind was if she would be able to find a way to stay by his side through it all. She wasn't sure what she had to offer that would make her valuable in such a fight. Before she could consider this any longer, Lana was brought out of her thoughts by Clark's voice and she directed her attention to him exclusively.

"Lana, do you think I'm a monster for what I did to those people? The way… the way I killed them? How can you even look at me after what I did? You even had to clean me up afterwards. I just don't understand how you can even look at me anymore." Questioned Clark in a soft voice that was barely above a whisper. For an instance Lana looked shocked. A moment later determination spread across her face and she locked her eyes with his. "You didn't do anything wrong Clark. If anything you saved lives by what you did. Daniel Jackson told us all about those things in the meeting. Don't you remember what he said? Their nearly unstoppable and they have no purpose but to kill for their master. What you did was a necessary evil and I could never hate you for that."

"In fact I don't think I could hate you for anything. I love you too much for that. As for cleaning you up, I'll admit that was a little disturbing but not because of the blood. It was disturbing because you were somewhat hollow. You were nothing like I remembered you. You were scared, and refused to look at me. That's why it was disturbing. I'm in this with you all the way Clark. No matter what I am going to be there for you, so if that means having to clean you up after battles or watch you kill more of those things then so be it. I'll do it willingly and happily so long as you never turn away from me like that again." said Lana with a smile on her face as she moved her other hand to rest on the side of his face while her first continued it's ministrations with his scalp.

Their time together was interrupted a few minutes later when Sam knocked on the door of the room before stepping inside and smiling at the pair. "Hey guys. The General has made arrangements for us to catch a ride with a military transport out of a nearby military base back to metropolis. It leaves in a couple hours so we need to leave within the next thirty minutes to get their on time. I don't imagine there's much here you need to bring with you so why don't you pack up whatever you need and the guards will bring you to surface when you're done. I have to finish packing so I'll leave you guys to it." and with that Sam smiled warmly at the trio again before turning and walking out of the room.

* * *

Clark couldn't help but think about what his father would say if he could see him right now. It had possibly been one of his greatest fears that Clark would be discovered by the government and the idea of his son working with the military would have given him a heart attack. The plane had just taken off and Clark couldn't help but worry about what he was going to tell his mother. It had been a thought he had been trying to put out of his mind since the moment he realized that he was likely to be revealed to the military. It was true that the situation did not look as bad as he thought it would be. These people were certainly a lot better then others he could have ended up with. Hell one of the team members of their flagship team was an alien. If that didn't say something about their attitude toward aliens then nothing would.

That thought however did not quell his concerns. His mother was sure to freak when she heard and then there was Chloe. Chloe would think he had lost his mind for agreeing to this. That is until she found out about the SGC and then she would think he had lost his mind for a completely different reason. It was a lose/lose situation. He was positive that the conversation he would inevitably have to have with the two of them would be one of the worst in his life. He could already hear his mother's concerned voice telling him that she didn't want to loose her son when she had already lost her husband.

That however was really only half the problem if he was being truthful with himself. The real problem or rather he should say the deeper problem was that he was in fact scared of what was to come. His life had never exactly been normal but at the same time he had always had that safety net to fall back on. The knowledge that almost nothing on this planet could hurt him. No matter what happened he was safe and that had always been a comfort to him, even if he had never consciously acknowledged that.

Now however he was acutely aware that while he was still largely invulnerable to attacks from other planets, the races he would be going up against did in fact have the capability, the technology to be able to harm him and he was going to be fighting them. He wouldn't admit it to his friends just yet and he hadn't really admitted it to himself either but deep down he had already made the decision to join the SGC. This was not something he could walk away from. Now it was more a question of when and how he was going to be involved rather then if he was going to be involved.

Clark had several important things that he felt needed to be accomplished during his time back in Smallville before he could move forward with this new quest that he would be taking. The first thing he needed was to find out more about the worlds beyond earth and in order to do that he would need to talk with Jor'El. With all he had learned in the past day he had the distinct feeling that his next conversation with his biological father would be an enlightening one. He wondered if he was truly prepared to accept this as his destiny.

That thought startled Clark and for the first time ever he realized that his father might actually have known something like this was coming. He had been hinting at him having a greater destiny then that of a common farmer for years now. Clark knew for a fact that his father knew everything about the caves in Smallville so if Daniel was right about these Ancients having written something in there then that meant his father knew about it. More then that though it meant that he may have been a part of it. Yes, he would defiantly have to have a talk with his father.

Other then that, he needed to get his family and friends to accept his decision and their support. He may have decided deep down that he was going to accept already but he was not going to tell them that. He wanted their opinions, they mattered to him. Ultimately he would keep an open mind and if one of them brought up something that he felt seriously brought into question his decision then he would adjust his choice accordingly but either way he still wanted to hear what they thought.

Finally he needed to know where they stood with him. The thought of leaving his two best friends and girlfriend on earth while he took off to fight in an intergalactic war was a scary one. He had never felt as truly alone as he did when he thought about that possibility. Preferably he would want them to be involved albeit in a less active way. He would want them to be his support structure as they always had but at the same time he wanted them as far away from the actual fighting as he could get them. It was all rather confusing really. This whole event had really thrown his whole world for a loop and he didn't know what to do anymore. Of course if he was to be truthful with himself, the possibility of his friends letting him leave them behind -safe and sound- was extremely slim. He could just hear Lana now as she berated him for even considering the possibility.

Clark shifted his eyes to Jack's when he heard the older man clear his throat as if he was going to say something. He didn't have to wait long before he began. "Ok Clark so here's what we're going to do. When we land in Metropolis we'll be taking a couple of SUV's into Smallville and we'll come with you to your place to make sure you get settled in alright. All your parents and friends who we felt would have a reason to notice your absence have been given a cover story about a military transport spilling a load of chemicals. As far as any of them are concerned you were brought in to be given a check up and watched for the night to ensure that you hadn't had any adverse side effects to the exposure."

"We're going to come with you just to keep up appearances and after that we'll be out of your hair. We have to do the same with Pete. Lana, seeing as you live on your own, you can just keep up appearances with the few employees who we alerted. Remember that before you tell Chloe Sullivan or Senator Kent anything, that you must have them sign the non-disclosure agreements. In the interest of giving you your space we're going to leave the forms with you and count on you to have them sign it before hand. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how much trouble all parties involved would be in should any of this information be leaked so make sure these get signed and that when you have your conversation that your not anywhere that other people can overhear you."

"Once we're done with that we'll be heading into town and finding a place to stay. You have our cell phone numbers if you need to get in touch with us and with it being such a small town I'm sure that you won't have much trouble finding us. I should point out that you should talk with your mother and friend quickly. I don't imagine it will take them long to figure out that something's up with us staying in town and all."

"Outside of that we'll be looking around town a bit, collecting some soil samples and such for Janet so that she can study the meteors effects on the town's populace and we will also be checking in with the police on past cases that involved these meteor freaks you talked about. Oh and of course Daniel will be burying his head in the caves, I mean he will be doing super important research in the caves while we're here" said Jack with a laugh.

"Take your time to talk things over but remember that we're here to help as well. This type of thing is hard to explain, trust me I've had to do it a few times and you don't have to do it alone. We're the ones with all the experience and I'm sure having Teal'c there when you finally get into the really gritty details will help the situation. Give us a call if you have any question or just want us to come by for a question and answer session with your family." Finished Jack

Clark smiled and nodded his head in thanks. "Thank you Jack, I appreciate your help. You've all been really understanding about this. I just need time to think things over and discuss all this with the people that I care most about. I do intend to bring you into the conversation and I also intend to join Daniel in the caves at some point but at least for the first little bit I am going to need to do this without you guys. I'm sure I'm going to be on the receiving end of one of my mother's lectures as a result of this whole mess." said Clark.

The rest of the flight passed in silence with each of the three teens lost in their own thoughts while Daniel talked nonstop about how excited he was to get a chance to research a possible link between what might have been two of the most powerful races they had ever come across. All in all the flight had been fairly painless but Clark couldn't help but think that it would have been easier to just have them use their spaceship again.

* * *

Things had gone about as well as Clark had expected when they made their way back to the farm. His mother had been polite as always and even talked for a few minutes with the members of SG1, thanking them for their help despite the fact that she was obviously worried by their presence. Pete had left with Jack and the gang to head to his house so they could repeat the process with his father, which left Lana and Clark to deal with his mother and her obviously mounting concern. Figuring that it had already been a long day and that they needed the break the trio had agreed to postpone the inevitable conversation until the following morning. Pete had agreed to contact Chloe as soon as he got a moment and that he would see them in the morning.

Lana for her part had decided to stay with Clark to face his mother and ultimately stay the night so that they could truly be alone. It was hard to believe that they had only been together for a day or so and already they had been through so much together. They were both looking forward to the opportunity to just relax with each other. So they had told his mother that they needed to be together tonight because they hadn't gotten a chance to finish their talk about his secret and with everything that had happened they really needed the time alone. His mother had relented and led them inside insisting that they eat something before going to bed.

When the lecture finally did come it was nothing as he had expected although he imagined he would be getting another one of sorts tomorrow when the full truth came out but even still he was a little surprised when it became apparent that his mother was more fussing over him then lecturing him for getting involved with the military. In the end she had talked to them for all of ten minutes about what had happened at the base and whether or not they had discovered anything about Clark before sending the two of them off to bed.

Clark had been shocked for a moment when his mother made no attempt to separate the two of them into different rooms before he remembered that both she and his father had been aware of their physical relationship in the past and that his mother was equally aware that Clark had in fact asked her to marry him the first time that he had revealed his secret to her. After that he figured that she just assumed they were in it for the long haul and that if they really intended to do anything, that something as small as sleeping in different rooms wouldn't stop them.

Clark walked into his room with Lana following close behind before closing the door, kicking off his shoes and flopping down onto his bed in an exhausted manner. A moment latter Lana lay down next to him and scooted up against him so that he was spooning her from behind before laying her head on his pillow and sighing tiredly. As she lay there she felt Clark's arms encircle her and pull her flush against his chest. Lana signed a long and exhausted sigh as she finally let her body relax after the long and tiring day they had all just dealt with. The knowledge that tomorrow would be just as bad if not worse weighed heavily on her thoughts as she delighted in the warmth and comfort that Clark's arms provided her.

The pair lay in silence for a few minutes before Clark decided to address the few things that they still need to do before they could finally fall asleep. "We should really grab a shower Lana and I think we need to discuss how we're going to approach everything with Chloe and my mom tomorrow. Everything is such a mess right now and I know that most of the questions they have tomorrow we aren't going to have answers for. You know how Chloe is, she'll think this is some big conspiracy or something and will bombard us with hundreds of questions about everything under the sun and while my mother isn't quite as bad she's not exactly going to be a walk in the park to deal with either. My parents were always so afraid that somebody would find out and that the government would come take me away. This is really going to freak her out. Of course we also need to get some sleep since tomorrow is going to be a nightmare and somewhere in our busy schedule I need to visit the caves and talk with my father Jor'El."

"I think I might like to make the trip tonight before SG1 gets the chance to check it out. I trust them so far or at least to an extent but I need some answers before I make any headway into this whole mess and it might help with our conversation in the morning if we knew more about what's going on." suggested Clark.

Lana turned her head to look questioningly at him before smiling and murmuring her acceptance. Like many things, she didn't understand what he was talking about but she was sure that it would all make sense eventually. Deciding that he was right and that they should get cleaned up and talk a bit before heading to bed for a few hours Lana stood up and walked over to Clark's dresser where she pulled out a pair of his boxers and moved over to his closet to take out one of his long flannel shirts. "I'm borrowing these." said Lana as if it was the most common thing in the world. With that she turned from the closet and headed for the door with a laugh.

When Lana returned nearly thirty minutes later Clark took his turn in the bathroom before returning to the bedroom and laying back down beside Lana who was already lying on the bed with her eyes closed. Clark sighed and shook his head before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her protectively to him. Looking at the sleeping form in his arms Clark decided that they could discuss tomorrows meeting when they woke up and turned to set his alarm for three AM. Satisfied that they would have enough time to take care of their business before the morning if they were up by three, Clark lay back down and closed his eyes. A few minutes later he drifted on to sleep thinking of the dangers and adventures that awaited him and his friends in the future.

* * *

Clark slowly drifted back to consciousness what felt like minutes later just moments after his alarm clock had begun to going off. After quickly turning it off as to not wake his mother, Clark turned his attention to the young woman lying peacefully next to him with her head resting on his upper chest and one of her arms draped casually over his stomach. Even in her current state she looked ravishing to him. She seemed to glow with happiness and contentment and he imagined that he looked the same way. Despite still being somewhat tired Clark had to admit that he had just had the best nights sleep in his life. Never before had he felt so at peace with the world around him. Everything had seemed like it was right in the world and none of his current problems bothered him. As far as he was concerned at this point in time the world was perfect and nothing could possibly change that.

After just watching Lana for a few more minutes, Clark finally decided that he had better wake her up so that they could get things started. It was already a quarter after three in the morning and he had so much to tell her still before the day began. He had dreamt about what he was going to do today and now he had come to a decision. He refused to have any more secrets between them any longer. He intended to take her to talk to Jor'El so that they could try and get some answers. But more importantly he intended to tell her everything. He had already made his decision and told her who he really was. Now she had the right to know what had happened last time, she had the right to know that there had in fact been a last time.

Leaning down Clark gently pressed his lips to Lana's in a feather light kiss before pulling back ever so slightly and repeating the process, all the while he held her close to him and stroked his hands up and down her back. After only a few moments Lana smiled into his lips sleepily and wrapped her arms around him while pressing herself into him as much as she could. Lana rolled Clark over onto his back while sliding into his lap and began kissing him back. "Mmm… I could get used to waking up like that Clark." Whispered Lana as she lay down on his chest and rested her head on his shoulder.

Clark chuckled silently and held her close for a few moments before responding. "I could get used to waking up beside you as well. Last night was the best night's sleep I have ever had. It's really too bad that we don't have the time to just lounge around in bed all day and relax. There's nothing I'd like more then to just lay here all day and hold you in my arms." commented Clark as he stared lovingly into her eyes.

Lana's breath hitched at his words and she beamed brightly at him before kissing him passionately again and rolling out bed to get dressed. Lana dressed in the pants she had worn the day before, knowing that they would be stopping off at the talon first so that she could get changed and they could grab something to eat before they left for the day.

Less then ten minutes later they were making their way out the front door. Clark stopped on the front porch and breathed in the fresh morning air as he always did. Looking over his shoulder he smiled warmly at Lana before scooping her up into his arms bridal style. Lana was startled by the movement and looked up in surprise at Clark. "What are you doing Clark? Put me down." Lana laughed thinking that Clark was fooling around again. Clark smiled wickedly at her and winked before taking off into super speed.

* * *

It was nearly a half hour later that the pair made it out to the caves after sharing a couple cups of coffee together and a few muffins to get the day going. They both had plans to eat an early lunch and figured this would tide them over for the time being. Clark put Lana down gently at the entrance of the caves a moment after he dropped out of super speed. Taking a deep breath Clark turned his head slightly to look at Lana before smiling at taking her hand. "Come on Lana. There's a lot I want to show you today."

Clark led Lana through the caves towards the chamber in the back where they would be transported to the Fortress of Solitude. He stopped briefly outside the chamber and looked at the writings on the wall for the first time in a long time. It appeared Daniel was right or at least he was correct that there was another language written on the walls other then just Kryptonian. He supposed he had noticed it before but had never really paid it any attention. It had been the local aboriginals that had told him the tale that was supposedly written on the wall. Since he could never read it in the first place he had never bothered to look at it closely. But now that he was he could clearly see that not all the writing was Kryptonian in nature. It was just one more thing his father had to answer for.

Stepping forward into the chamber Clark approached the large table and reached into his pocket to remove the key. He was hit with a sudden wave of familiarity as his mind flashed back to the events all those months ago when he had stood in exactly the same place with Lana standing exactly where she was now. And less then twelve hours later she had been dead. Shaking himself out of his thoughts Clark once again breathed deeply and pushed those thoughts away. He wouldn't let that happen again but neither would he continue to live a lie. He would never keep secrets from Lana again. He loved her and she him. He knew if he wanted that love to last then this needed to be done.

Clark dropped the key into its slot and turned to face Lana with a smile on his face and his hand held out as a bright light flared to life behind him. "Do you trust me Lana?" he asked, subconsciously repeating his words from so long ago. Lana smiled back at him and took one deep breath to steel her nerves before reaching forward and taking his hand. "Always" she replied and an instant later they were gone.

* * *

Seconds later the pair arrived less then a mile from the Fortress of Solitude and Lana gasped at the sight before her. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes upon. Together they made there way towards the Fortress hand in hand. Clark was so caught up in his own thoughts of the past that he didn't even hear Lana question him about the structure; neither did he see her stop in front of him. A moment later he collided with her and his arms shot out instinctively to prevent her from falling.

Clark smiled sheepishly at her before addressing his obvious lack of awareness. "Sorry Lana. I was a little lost in my own thoughts. What did you say?" inquired Clark as his mind began to drift again of its own accord. He couldn't help it. They were standing almost directly below where he had first told her his secret and proposed to her moments later. He couldn't stop himself from thinking back to that day. Thinking back to how good it felt to hold her in his arms, and how incredibly happy he was when she told him later that day that she would marry him. With his thoughts continuing to swirl around like a cyclone Clark once again missed Lana's words.

Lana reached up and ran her hand gently along the side of Clark's face quickly bringing him out of the past. "Where were you just now Clark? You looked like you were a million miles away. What's on your mind?" questioned Lana. Clark sighed and looked deeply into her eyes before responding.

"Lana there's something I have to tell you. It's just so hard to get out. I've tried for so many months to put it behind me because it scares me to death to think that it might happen again. I don't think I could live with myself if that happened." Said Clark. Lana looked at her boyfriend questioningly. He wasn't making much sense. He was obviously still at least partially lost in his thoughts and it was equally obvious that those thoughts were troubling him greatly. Leaning forward and kissing him lightly on the lips Lana pulled back and smiled before speaking in a loving tone.

"Whatever it is Clark, we'll face it together. You can tell me anything. Please just let me in. Tell me what's bothering you and let me help you get through it. You don't have to be alone with any of this anymore." murmured Lana. Clark sighed heavily before pulling Lana into his arms and holding her tightly as if to reassure himself that she wouldn't just disappear. "Lana this isn't the first time that I've brought you here. The last time you came here was the happiest day of my life, at least it was for a short time." said Clark.

Lana looked confused for a moment before voicing her confusion. "But Clark I've never been here before in my life. I'm sure I would remember being transported from the Smallville caves to the middle of the artic. That doesn't make any sense." Said Lana as she continued to look strangely at her boyfriend. Clark smiled sadly at her before continuing. "It's not that simple Lana. Do you remember around the time my father died, our relationship was going through a rough patch and I asked you to meet me early in the morning for a mystery date as you called it? I told you to dress warm. Do you remember?" questioned Clark.

Lana's eyes widened at the realization and then knitted together in confusion again. "Yes Clark I remember the day perfectly well. As I remember it was the day we broke up. You called me for a date and then when I showed up you backpedaled. But we never went anywhere Clark." Said Lana. Clark closed his eyes tightly as the memories of that day flared up again and he shook his head violently to clear them before opening his eyes again to show unshed tears threatening to spill out.

"You don't understand Lana. There was a reason I backpedaled so hard that day. Oh it's so hard to explain. You have to understand Lana that my race has some very advanced technology and while not a lot of it is at my disposal this Fortress does posses some of it. One of the things that I had access to was a crystal that would allow me the chance to relieve the past twenty four hours, to right the wrongs that had happened." Clark stopped and took a shuddering breath.

Lana gasped in surprise and then horror as she began to think about what he was saying. "Oh no Clark… I'm sorry. What did I say to you? I was horrible wasn't I. I'm so sorry that I hurt you. I must have just been scared and I wasn't thinking right. You had every reason to push me away. I can't believe you took me back after something like that." Stammered Lana in a rush. Clark shook his head and laughed a hollow laugh.

"Oh god I wish it had been something like that. I could have dealt with you being afraid of me. Hell you acted that way when I told you this time but you got over it. No, it was much worse then that." Said Clark before sighing and deciding to tell her the whole story. "The first time I lived that day Lana I brought you here. I had decided to finally tell you my secret because I loved you so much. I brought you to the caves and transported us here. Then I took us up to the top of that cliff and I told you all about myself. You didn't freak out at all Lana. In fact you returned my feelings." Said Clark

Looking shyly over at Lana Clark continued. "And then I asked you to marry me." whispered Clark. Lana gasped in surprise as her eyes grew wide and tears of joy began to well up. Before she could respond however Clark continued his story. "You told me that you needed some time to think about it and so I gave you the ring and we spent the morning together. Later that day just before we were supposed to go to the Talon to listen to the election results, you told me that your answer was yes. It was the happiest moment of my life and I thought that at last I had you for my own and that we would spend the rest of our lives together. I was right, I just didn't realize that you'd be dead before the night was out." finished Clark as the tears finally began to fall and he pulled Lana to him and hugged her for all her was worth.

Lana stood in his arms, shocked beyond belief at what she had just heard. She didn't understand how that could have happened. Clark had always been there for her. How could she have died? It took her several minutes before she finally managed to voice her questions and the answer she got in return made her blood run cold. "We went to the Talon that night and we told everybody the great news. After the results had been announced you received a call from Lex. You told me that you were going to go talk to him for a few minutes and that you would be back."

"Somehow he figured out that you knew my secret, I guess it had something to do with you taking me back and trusting me completely again after all the times I had refused to tell you the truth. He was drunk and he began to get violent so you left. When he realized what he had done he chased after you in his car to try and apologize. You weren't paying attention to the road because of what was going on and your truck was t-boned killing you instantly. Even with all my powers there was nothing I could do to save you. I loved you so much and I swore I would do anything if I could just have you back. My father told me that I could go back and relive that day but that I could only do it once. There was only one crystal. So I decided that the only way to make sure you didn't die was to push you away." finished Clark as the tears continued to fall slowly down the sides of his face.

And suddenly it all made sense now. Everything that had happened between them since that day made perfect sense to Lana and she cursed herself for how badly she had treated him. It was true that she didn't know at the time that he hadn't been just screwing around with her but now that she did she couldn't help but feel horrible for the way she had acted. He had blamed himself for her death and despite how much he loved her he had let her go to protect her. She had to admit that she was glad that he had told her. As much as it scared her, she still didn't want there to be any secrets between them and she knew that he would do everything in his powers to keep her safe. She loved him too much to back out now.

"Shh love… it doesn't matter anymore. It's all in the past. We're together again now and nothing is going to change that. Lex was drunk and acting like an idiot. I'll just be more careful around him or ignore him all together. I'm not going anywhere and I'm not afraid. I know that you'll protect me this time. With everything that you've told me love, I've only got one question." Said Lana. Clark smiled warmly at her before responding. "And what would that be?" he inquired as he held her close. Lana pouted up at him. "How come I don't have a ring on my finger?"

Clark blinked owlishly at her for a few moments before bursting out laughing. He just couldn't help it. She just knew exactly what to say to make him feel better; it was like a talent of hers. "I'm sorry Lana; I'm not laughing at you. It's just that you always seem to know how to lighten the mood and make me feel better. The only reason you don't have a ring on your finger yet Lana is because I wanted to show you everything about my life this time before you had to make a decision. Don't ever doubt that I don't love you, because it has nothing to do with my love." Said Clark upon seeing her perturbed expression.

That seemed to placate Lana as she smiled up at him and kissed him lightly on the lips before taking his hand and moving forward towards the Fortress again. Clark smiled in return and followed after her. They had after all come here to see his father and get some answers. A few minutes later the pair stepped through the large opening in the side of the Fortress into the inner chamber. Clark quickly led Lana forward towards the control console before stopping and called out for his father.

"I've returned father and I have many questions that need answering. I won't leave here until you answer my questions. You lied to me. You said I was the last of our people but I'm not." yelled Clark. A moment later a hologram of sorts appeared over the control console which displayed the image of Clark's father as he was before his death. "Be calm Kal'El. What I kept from you was for your own good. You were not yet ready to carry out your destiny; I can see that has changed. I see you have brought with you the earthling which you saved so many months ago. I am proud of you my son. You have beaten back your fears and pursued what is important to you. You could not be ready to pursue your destiny until you had accepted the risks and consequences of all your actions and abandoned your fears of the future." Said Jor'El in a loud voice which rang out throughout the Fortress.

"Come now my son, ask your questions. It is time that you claim your inheritance and fulfill the destiny which is before you." stated Jor'El a moment later. Clark sucked in his breath quickly when he realized that he was actually going to get answers this time. "Why did you not tell me that I had family that was still alive? Why did you not tell me about the alien writings on the cave walls in Smallville? Why have you withheld so much from me? If I had known before I could have sought out a way to save our family earlier. Why have you kept this information from me." demanded Clark as he felt a rage build up within him, the likes of which he had never felt before.

"As I said my son, you were not yet ready for what I had to tell you when last we spoke. It has only been within the last couple of weeks that you have grown to a point where you might understand the enormity of what I shall put upon you. I left you on earth for a reason my son. You have been raised by loving parents as you would have been on Krypton. I entrusted you to a family I knew well even if they did not realize it. You have learned about love, pain, and loss, and finally you have realized that some things are simply out of our hands. That even with all our powers we are not infallible. You have learned that you can not live your life in fear of what might happen but rather you must live life as if each day was the last and you must follow your heart. I knew one day you would learn these things and that on that day I would tell you of your destiny. On that day your true journey would begin." Boomed Jor'El with something akin to pride in his voice.

Clark stood there completely gob smacked. He had never heard his father talk like this to him before. He had sounded downright proud of him, as if he had met and exceeded his wildest expectations. Never before had he heard that tone in his father's voice and somehow it made him feel good to know that despite their disagreements that his father was proud of him. "Please father… I know you have been watching over me. You always do. There is so much I must know and so little time to do so. Please answer my questions. Tell me what it is you have been hiding from me for all these years." Begged Clark.

"You are correct my son. I have been following your progress with the humans of this world. I was surprised to learn of the Stargate being in use as I believed it had been lost long ago. The humans of this SGC have proven they are capable allies and will aid you in your destiny my son. You shall lead them and the people of this planet through their darkest hours and into the light. I have faith in you my son, you will prevail."

"I believe it is time you learn the full weight of what you must face my son. As you have already learned from the humans the writings on the cave wall which you are unfamiliar with are from a race known by them as the Ancients. Like us they were once a great and powerful race. They were for the most part peaceful and sought to make the universe a better place. They excelled in all things they did and eventually became arrogant. In the end that arrogance proved to be their undoing as it was for our own race." Explained Jor'El

"In their arrogance they created a powerful enemy without knowing it. They unleashed this enemy unto their home galaxy and forgot about it. Over time this being spread like a plague and by the time the Ancients realized just what they had done it was already too late. For thousands of years they fought this new enemy until finally they were brought to their knees. Knowing that they had been beaten the Ancients fled from their home and came to our galaxy in hopes of living out their lives. Eventually they ascended to a higher plain of existence, shedding their mortal bodies and living forever as an advanced being outside our realm of existence. They left behind their problems and swore that they would never interfere in the lives of those lower then them."

"While most followed these rules there were some that did not. A large portion of them did not believe that they should simply watch but instead believed they should rule over all those lower then them. This group fled this galaxy and traveled far from here where they did just that. Of the group that remained there were still a few that believed they should help those lower races, that they should guide them from afar and gently lead them through life."

"It was one such Ancient that approached me many years ago when I was here on earth. His name was Moros and I met him in the very caves that the writings are found in. I was preparing to return to Krypton from the caves when he appeared before me. He claimed that among our race I was the most receptive to what he had come to warn me about. He told me about his people, and about the way they were ultimately defeated. And then he told me that our race was going to suffer a similar fate. It was then that I learned of the fate that our planet would suffer. He warned me that our planet would be destroyed and that if we did not evacuate that our race would die with it. And then he was gone." Said Jor'El in a defeated tone.

"From that day forward I devoted myself to finding a way to save our world. When it became obvious that there was nothing that could be done I instead tried to convince our council of the danger which was approaching. By this time I had married your mother and she had just found out that she was pregnant with you. It quickly became obvious that our people did not believe they were in danger. It was just like he had said. We had become arrogant and considered ourselves infallible and invincible."

"Then one night a few months before the destruction of our home he appeared to me again. This time your mother was with me as well. We had already made the decision to send you away to earth where you would be safe, where you would survive. When he appeared before us he made an offer we could not refuse. He told us about the turmoil through the universe and of the many threats which would one day throw the entire universe into darkness if not stopped. He proposed an action between our two races that could potentially save the universe and you along with it. You would become the heir of not only the Kryptonian people but of the Ancients as well. Your DNA was to be modified to include a special gene which was unique to the Ancients and their descendants. This gene would allow you to utilize all their technology when the time came. In exchange the few Ancients who disagreed with the rules would help us and a few others from the house of El ascend."

"And so over the next several months the preparations were made. Your DNA was changed, a spaceship was assembled to take you to earth and one of our best warriors, your cousin was selected to watch over you on earth. She left with him to arrange for the complete knowledge of the Ancient people to be available to you when the time came. Unfortunately she was attacked along the way by the Breen and infected with their macro virus. Realizing that she was dieing our Ancient friend placed her in an Ancient stasis pod and placed her on a world that you would visit in the future once you learned of your destiny." Continued Jor'El. All the while Clark and Lana stared wide eyed at the hologram in a state of complete disbelief.

"Finally with only weeks to go before the destruction of our race I returned to earth and modified the writings on the wall as well as the three crystals which you would eventually unite. With that done I returned to Krypton and your mother and I sent you off towards earth. It was the last time either of us saw you in person. Know that we have and continue to watch over you my son. You will never truly be alone." Finished Jor'El.

Clark stood ram rod still for several minutes staring blankly at the hologram in front of him while he tried to comprehend what he had been told. It was so much to take in, so hard to believe and yet it all made sense now. It suddenly hit him that his parents were alive and well but that they had refused to approach him. Instead all they had done was left a copy of his father's consciousness in this damn computer. Clark shook his head. This was not the time to be thinking of that. He still had so many questions. Many of them had been answered but those answers had for the most part only given him more questions. There was just so much he did not understand.

Looking up at his fathers image Clark steeled himself and proceeded forward with his questions. "You keep referring to this individual. Why has he never approached me if I am the heir of his people? There is so much I must know father. I need to understand." Questioned Clark.

"I am sorry my son but you will meet him soon enough. For now it is time that you claim the knowledge which is yours by right." To the right of the console a large door opened in the wall and behind the door was a small room with a single raised platform similar to the one in the cave. Clark stared at it for several moments before turning back to his Father in confusion. "I do not understand Father. What are you asking of me?" questioned Clark.

"Through that door my son is the gateway to your future. Like the platform in the caves this platform will transport you and any within its range to another destination. However unlike the platform in the caves this one will not take you to a Kryptonian stronghold. Instead it will take you far from here to an ancient outpost where you will begin your journey. There you will find answers to all your questions and there you will claim the complete knowledge of both the Kryptonian and Ancient peoples. This is your destiny my son. Meet it with honor and your head held high." Commanded Jor'El as the Hologram disappeared from sight.

Clark startled at his words and stared at the platform in awe for several moments before he realized that his father had disappeared. "Father… wait Father I need more… you have to tell me what's going on. Don't leave me like this." Yelled Clark but regardless of what he said his father would not respond. Taking a deep breath he turned to Lana who was continuing to stare at the platform and seemed to be having a hard time understanding all that was happening.

* * *

Lana had listened to everything that had been said during Clark's conversation with his father and had found herself completely overwhelmed. In the back of her mind she realized that Clark was not doing much better. He seemed to be in a similar state of shock as she was. She wasn't thinking of leaving him or anything, she was just beyond shocked that something like this was happening to her and to the boy that until recently was just a normal farm boy that she was incredibly infatuated with.

Lana looked up into Clark's worry filled eyes when she felt his hand on her shoulder. She smiled weakly at him in an effort to reassure him that everything was fine but ultimately decided she would have to voice her feelings to make him understand. "I'm fine Clark… It's just so much to take in at once. I'm being introduced to a whole new world that I never even knew existed and it's just a little overwhelming. And now we're going to have to travel to another place and meet with another race or something. It's just so much to take in at once. I'm sorry if I worried you. You have nothing to worry about… do you hear me? I have no intention of leaving you. We're in this together now. If this is your destiny then it's mine as well. After all mister Kent if you want to get technical about it, I'm already your finance so if you think I'm going to let you just run off half cocked around the universe without me then you have another thing coming mister." By the time Lana finished she was back to her confident self and was poking Clark in the chest to emphases her point.

Clark smiled down at her thankfully and took her hand in his. "I knew I could depend on you Lana. So what do you say we face this destiny together? I don't know about you but I want answers and if they're through that portal then so be it." said Clark with a confidence that he had not had before. Lana smiled and nodded her head in agreement before the two of them walked towards the platform that would lead them to their new lives.

* * *

Clark stepped onto the platform with Lana held tightly in her arms and looked around for how to activate it so that they could get things underway. As soon as they stepped into the middle of the platform they noticed the door to the chamber slide closed and the platform began to glow brightly as if it were filling with energy. Clark pulled Lana closely to him and held her tight, unsure of what to expect in the next few moments. No sooner had this thought passed through his mind did the chamber fill with a blinding light. When the light faded away several seconds later Clark became instantly aware that they were no longer in the fortress of solitude. Their surroundings had changed drastically and Clark found his senses perking up as if in preparation for an unknown attack.

Clark released Lana from his arms but kept her close by as the pair stepped off the platform and looked around the small room they appeared to be in. the room had barely enough space for the platform they had come into and appeared to have no entrances or exits. The room was alight with a soft glow that showed off the surroundings in a pleasant way. Unlike the crystal structure that they had just come from this one appeared to be composed of various metals and was unlike anything either of them had ever seen before. A voice from all around them startled the pair and Clark spun in a circle trying to identify its source while keeping Lana close to him for protection.

"Fear not Kal'El of Krypton, for you are safe among these walls. I congratulate you on beginning your journey and for stepping forward to carry on the Kryptonian and Ancient legacies. Within these walls you shall find the answers you need to begin your journey and venture out into the vastness of space. You are the last hope of two long dead races that wish to see peace returned to the universe. In a moments time you shall be released from this room into its adjoining chamber. Within this chamber you shall find the answers you seek and your journey shall begin. Be strong young Kal'El. We have faith in you." said the mysterious voice.

It had taken Clark a few moments to realize that what he was hearing was a recording and not a real person at all at which point he settled down and listened closely to what was being said. The information he had received in the past half hour was continuing to swirl in his mind and he desperately needed answers to the myriad of questions that plagued him. As the message came to an end the wall to his left split into several panels which swiveled in place leaving two large exits from the room into another chamber beyond.

Beyond the doors Clark could see a much larger chamber which like the one they were in appeared to have no doors other then the set which they were moving through now. Looking through the entrance into the other chamber Clark took in its appearance carefully trying to ascertain if it was safe or not. On the far wall he could see two devices which were embedded into the walls and stood and approximately five feet from the floor. Each device appeared to have a hole in the middle about the size of a normal human head and was made of a strange black metal of some type.

Diverting his attention from the devices Clark looked around the rest of the room. In the Exact center of the room stood a large platform was much larger then the last two they had been on. The rest of the room was open space except a series of chairs directly in front of him which were facing towards the platform. Unsure what else to do Clark decided to step forward with Lana's hand in his and approach the platform to inspect it more closely.

As the pair approached the platform and crossed the line of chairs the doors behind them closed and the lights in the room flared brightly as the platform seemed to come to life causing both teens to stop dead in their tracks. A moment later an image of an elderly man with long flowing white hair and a long white beard appeared in the center of the platform. The man seemed to glow softly and wore long flowing robes of which Clark had never seen before. He could only assume from the way he had come into existence that he was similar to the Kryptonian construct of his father back in the Fortress.

Upon realizing this Clark stepped forward again with Lana at his side and walked around the platform inspecting it and the hologram more closely in an effort to determine what to do next. All the while the hologram stood perfectly still and said nothing. Finally Clark stopped back in front of the chairs and looked around in confusion before looking at Lana. "What do you suppose we do now?" inquired Clark. Before Lana could answer however the hologram replied as if the question had been directed at him in the first place.

"Welcome Kal'El. This outpost was created by your father and me as a place where you could learn about both the Kryptonian and Ancient people. Within my memory banks I have sufficient knowledge to answer your most likely questions. Please list the questions which you require answers to and I shall endeavor to answer them as best I can." Commented the hologram in an even manner while looking directly at the pair.

Clark looked at Lana before shrugging and looking back at the hologram. With all the questions swirling around in his mind Clark found it difficult to figure out where to start. He was beyond confused at this point and even though he knew the answers stood before him he found it difficult to focus on the task before him. Deciding that it was now or never Clark took a deep breath, squeezed Lana's hand and forced his mind to relax so that he could think more clearly. With that done Clark began with his questions.

"I guess the first thing I want to know is what exactly is it that I am supposed to do? What is my destiny that my father speaks constantly of? Where do I go from here and what dangers will I face on my way? These are but the first of an unending list of things that I do not have answers to." Stated Clark.

"These are excellent questions Kal'El and I can answer all of them. The tasks before you are difficult ones my boy. The universe is in a state of turmoil and things have only gotten worse over the last several thousand years. The great alliance which once protected this area of space has long since dissolved and only the Asgard remain to protect that which was once guarded by four great races. The Ancients were a part of this alliance along with the Furlings and the Nox. The Furlings have long since left this part of space and traveled back to their home galaxy never to be seen from again. The Nox have sequestered themselves on their home planet and hidden themselves away with their technology, content to live in peace. The Asgard can not hope to hold off the evil and darkness which threatens to swallow this galaxy and others whole without help." Explained the hologram

"You are the legacy of two great races Kal'El. You alone have access to both Ancient and Kryptonian technology and knowledge. With your help the universe might be saved from the darkness which threatens it. As our heir you are entitled to our place within the great alliance and as such the Asgard shall lend their help to you wherever possible. If the Ancients were to rejoin the great alliance it is possible that the Nox would rejoin as well. You alone hold an unimaginable number of lives in your hands."

"As to where you go from here, that is up to you. There are several things you must accomplish should you choose to accept this destiny and journey out amongst the stars. You must first assimilate the combined knowledge of the Ancient and Kryptonian people which I have left behind for you here. While it does not contain everything that we know, it does contain a complete language database for both races as well as information on key locations, enemies and technologies which you will encounter along your way." explained the hologram.

Clark stared in shock at the figure before him and he did not need to look at Lana to know that she felt the same way. That certainly answered a few of the most important questions but it left much to be desired. Shaking his head again Clark plowed forward in an effort to get to the bottom of this. "How would I assimilate the knowledge of my people and yours? What must I do to begin my journey after I am finished with that task? Who are the Asgard and how would I get in contact with them?" asked Clark as he tried to get the most information possible.

"Assimilating the knowledge of both races will be a simple task Kal'El. The devices you see on the back wall are known as repositories. Typically these devices hold either specific information or large pieces of our combined knowledge. They are capable of storing vast amounts of knowledge within their databanks and then transferring them within moments into any individual whom utilizes the device. However these two devices are special in their content. The device on the left has a vast store of information on the Kryptonian people and their technology as well as their abilities. With your Kryptonian physiology your mind will be able to handle the download but you will feel tired afterwards as your mind assimilates the information." said the hologram

"The device on the right contains limited information on specific key ancient systems and devices which you will need to know how to use and also the complete ancient language database. Between the two devices you will be able to read and understand both ancient and Kryptonian fluently. I shall warn you however that these devices can be quite dangerous for underdeveloped races that have not developed their minds to the point where they can handle the amount of knowledge being placed within their minds. The outpost's scanners have detected a human female with you Kal'El. While you are free to share our technology and knowledge with whomever you choose I must warn you that her mind would not be capable of assimilating the Kryptonian database. Your father stored a much greater amount of information within that database then I stored within the Ancient database. Your human friend would be capable of assimilating the Ancient database should you choose to share it with her. In order to utilize the devices you must only approach them and look through the hole within the device. A pair of mechanical arms shall hold you in place while the transfer is completed."

"Once you have finished assimilating this knowledge I would recommend returning to your home and resting to allow your mind the chance to properly process the new information which it has been given. It shall take several days for your mind to completely process the information in such a way that it is easily accessible to you. Once this has been accomplished I would suggest returning here so that we could continue our conversation. Ultimately your course of action will be up to you. You will however want to visit another of our facilities early in your journey. There you will learn much and will have access to all of our most coveted technologies. It would also be wise to contact the Asgard early in your quest. However these are all things that can be discussed at a later time. There are many things you will learn Kal'El and it is not possible to learn them all at once. This will not be a short journey. You will be able to contact the Asgard from the facility I mentioned previously. There you will find a similar construct to the one here which will be able to guide you in this process and many others." explained the hologram.

Clark nodded his head in understanding as he stared blankly at the two devices on the far wall before looking down at his watch. They had been gone for a while already. It was coming up on seven AM already and they still had a few things to do before they left. Deciding that it was best to ask a couple more questions and then get the transfer completed before returning home Clark breathed deeply and formulated what would be his last questions for the evening. "I have met a group of humans on earth who currently use the Stargate to seek out new technology to protect themselves and others from the Goa'uld. I believe they may have also mentioned the Asgard among other races which they have encountered. Should I ally myself them with them on this journey or distance myself from them. They seem to know a fair bit about your people and I believe that they are genuinely interested and committed to this fight. What should I do? Also you mentioned another facility which contains all of your technology. How would I get there?" inquired Clark.

The hologram was silent for several moments before responding and for an instance Clark thought it would not respond. "This is a difficult question to answer Kal'El. This journey is not something you will be able to do alone. Most of our greatest technology will be useless to you without allies to use it. After all you are but one man. You might create a fleet of ships but you would be able to use but one by yourself. With that said it is imperative that you be cautious of who you claim as your allies. Trust your instincts Kal'El but be cautious. If they are truly fighting to protect others and if they have been befriended by the Asgard then they are worthy allies. Likewise if they have attracted the wrath of the Goa'uld then they are likely fighting for the side of good. As for the facility I mentioned. When the time comes that you feel you are ready you shall be able to reach the facility through a transportation device similar to the one you used to get here. Now I believe that you should utilize the repositories before returning to your home and resting. Return when you are ready to continue your journey young Kal'El and I shall help you on your way." stated the hologram.

Clark watched as the hologram faded away and he turned to Lana to see a bemused expression on her face which he was sure was matched on his own. It was hard to believe that only a few years ago he had been a normal farm boy and now he was about to go out and fight in an intergalactic war. "Well that was interesting wasn't it?" asked Clark with a nervous laugh that showed his unease.

Lana looked over at him blankly before registering his words and tone. Her face softened instantly and her expression became loving as she reached up to place her hand on his cheek. "I will admit Clark that it is a lot to take in but it really changes nothing between us. Relax love. Like I said before, we're in this together and nothing will change that. At least now we know more of what's going on. Why don't you go use that machine or whatever so we can get out of here. I think we both need some time to rest and sort all of this out. Today is going to be interesting as it is." said Lana as she continued to stroke his cheek with a smile on her lips.

Clark nodded and kissed her gently before pulling her into a hug. "Would… would you like to share this knowledge with me Lana. I know you can use the Kryptonian knowledge base but he said that you could use the Ancient one. You deserve this information as much as I do." said Clark. At Lana's nod he led them over and Clark approached the machine on the right first to be sure it was safe.

As he looked into the opening in the device a pair of arms shot out of the machine. Clark found himself fighting his instincts to jump into super speed to get away and stayed where he was as the arms grabbed onto his head. He was vaguely aware of Lana screaming his name as the arms shot out and called to her to calm her down. Looking into the device Clark saw two lights approaching his eyes and began to feel a flood of knowledge being downloaded into his mind. A few moments later the arms released him and Clark staggered backwards away from the machine. Lana caught him before he fell and he steadied himself on his feet.

"I'm fine Lana really. It just caught me by surprise and it really is quite tiring like he said. Let me do this one and then you can do yours before we leave. I think we're going to want to sleep for a few hours before our meeting today." said Clark as he pulled himself from Lana's arms and kissed her before walking to the other device. A few minutes later both had finished using the devices and Clark picked up Lana who had fallen asleep already and exited the outpost the way they came.

* * *

Clark arrived back at the Smallville caves at roughly eight o'clock and stopped outside the entrance to make sure he still had the key to the chamber with him. Realizing that everything was as it should be Clark jumped into super speed and headed for home with Lana in his arms. In total they had been gone for over 4 hours and they were both dead tired. That was how the two found themselves stumbling up the stairs towards Clark's bedroom at roughly 8am that morning and planning on getting a few more hours of sleep.

* * *

Daniel Jackson sat comfortably in one of the large cushioned chairs within the rooms that he and the rest of SG1 had rented at the local bed and breakfast. Across the room from him Jack was currently preparing himself a cup of coffee while Daniel reviewed the security logs from the night before. "You were right Jack. The security logs show that somebody tripped the infrared sensor twice last night at the caves. Once around three thirty in the morning and again around eight am this morning. I'm pulling up the video footage for those times now. It should only take a minute." Said Daniel as he sipped on his own coffee and did just that.

A moment later he looked up at Jack in surprise. "How did you know that he was going to take a trip into the caves last night?" asked Daniel. Jack smiled smugly before replying. "I'm a soldier Daniel, I'm trained the notice things. When you started talking about those caves back at the SGC he all but freaked out. It was more then the writing. I have no reason to doubt what they told us is true but I was pretty sure there was something more to it then he was telling us and now I know. Those caves have something more specific to do with him. There's something special about them. And whatever it is he did not want us to know about it; at least not yet. Who knows he may tell us but at least for the time being he doesn't trust us enough." Said Jack as he took a long swig of his coffee and sighed in contentment.

"Well you were right Jack and he took Lana with him as well. Whatever it was that they did in there took more then four hours and was obviously exhausting for them. They both looked practically dead on their feet when they came out of there. I imagine it will be quite a while before we talk to them today if they decide to talk to us today at all." said Daniel

Jack nodded his head in understanding before finishing his coffee and putting his cup in the makeshift kitchen that each room came with. A moment later he turned back to Daniel. "Alright, I've learned what I wanted to. I want you to take down the surveillance today. Let's not do anything that is going to make this kid trust us less then he already does. I want you to take Sam with you to examine the caves today in detail. Get copies of all the writing and see if you can find any sign of what they were doing in there. I'm going to take Teal'c and go speak with the police in this town, see if we can't get copies of all these cases the kid was talking about. Let's meet back here at around 5pm. Keep your phone on, I gave Clark your number so if he wants to see us he'll be calling you." said Jack before turning towards the door.

"Sure thing Jack, I'll check in with you if I hear from him." said Daniel and with that Jack left the room to find Teal'c. Daniel looked back at the screen once more to see Clark speed off in a blur before shaking his head in disbelief and closing his laptop. He still couldn't get over the power this kid had but at least it seemed like he was on the right side of the law. Packing up his equipment quickly Daniel headed out of the room to meet up with Sam before leaving for the caves.


End file.
